A total of 14,462 PCR tests were performed in the past 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry.
In its regular situation report, the ministry did not mention the death toll over the past 24 hours. It, however, reported 16 Covid-19-related fatalities.
The countrywide death toll has now reached 11,651. The number of active cases stands at 72,862 and the rate of infection positivity is 56.78 percent.
According to the World Health Organization, if the positivity rate, or the number of tests that return positive for every 100 tests, is more than 5 percent, the pandemic is supposed to be beyond control.
According to the ministry, 820,283 infected people have recovered from the disease so far; 708 of them in the last 24 hours.
Nepal, on January 7, had reported 24 new Omicron cases. Earlier in December, three Omicron cases were confirmed.
The Health Ministry said tests conducted on 250 samples from among the 1,146 infected in the Nepali month of Poush had shown S-gene dropouts. Gene-sequencing performed on 24 samples returned Omicron results in all of them.
Kathmandu Valley recorded 5,306 new infections in the past 24 hours. Of these, 3,762 cases were confirmed in Kathmandu, 1,110 in Lalitpur and 434 in Bhaktapur.
In the past 24 hours, 656 new infections were recorded in Province 1, 309 in Madhes Pradesh, 5,870 in Bagmati, 579 in Gandaki, 445 in Lumbini, 69 in Karnali and 265 in Sudurpaschim.
On Saturday, 210 individuals infected with the virus were being treated in intensive care units across the country. Another 37—five in Province 1, 29 in Bagmati and one each in Gandaki, Lumbini and Sudurpaschim—were on ventilator support.
16.12°C Kathmandu
