Nepal on Sunday reported the first Covid-19 death in 73 days, marking the first death of the fourth wave of the pandemic.

The last time the country witnessed the Covid-19 death was on May 4. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, a 56-year-old woman from Sunsari died of pneumonia resulting from Covid-19 infections.

“The woman may not have been vaccinated, and nothing has been mentioned about her vaccination status,” said Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson at the Health Ministry.

Covid cases have been rising lately with an increase in hospitalisations.

According to the Health Ministry, an infected patient, whose health condition is severe, has been on ventilator support and 18 others have been receiving treatment in the intensive care units throughout the country.

Nineteen people infected with covid-19 whose health condition is serious have been admitted to the high dependency unit.

After the third wave of the pandemic driven by the Omicron variant in January, the number of deaths from Covid had declined significantly. Data provided by the Health Ministry shows that four people have died of coronavirus infections since March 8.

On Sunday, 135 tested positive—114 in 1,473 polymerase chain reaction tests and 21 in 1,568 antigen tests.

The number of active cases stands at 1,439 throughout the country. Of them, 1,370 infected people have been placed in home isolation but no agency has been monitoring their health conditions and movements.