A patient infected with Covid from Kaski district died while receiving treatment at Pokhara-based Charak Memorial Hospital on Sunday evening.

This is the third confirmed death from coronavirus infection within a period of a month in the country. She was 74.

“The patient was suffering from multiple comorbidities—pneumonia, acute kidney infection, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung disease, type-2 diabetes, hypertension and hypothyroidism,” Deepali Thapa, medical record officer at the hospital, told the Post over the phone from Pokhara. “She was admitted to our hospital some 12 days ago and tested positive for Covid around 10 days ago.”

Before this, on June 24, a 39-year-old woman from Suryodaya Municipality of Ilam district, who was admitted to Biratnagar-based Nobel Medical College and Teaching Hospital’s emergency department for treatment, succumbed to Covid.

The death was the first in two years from coronavirus in the country.

The Epidemiology and Disease Control Division reported the second death from the coronavirus a few days ago.

Of late, Nepal has been witnessing a surge in Covid cases.

So far, 360 people have tested positive for the coronavirus since January. The number of districts reported coronavirus infection reached 42.

The Ministry of Health and Population has also confirmed the spread of multiple subvariants of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Of the 14 swab samples of Covid-infected persons on which whole-genome sequencing was carried out last month, Omicron subvariants were detected in all.

According to the National Public Health Laboratory, which carried out the whole genome sequencing, the subvariant XFG was confirmed in seven samples, XFG.3 in five samples, and JN.1 in two samples.

The Omicron’s subvariants XFG and XFG.3 are also the dominant strains spreading in neighbouring India.

The NPHL said that NB.1.8.1 was not detected in any of the samples.

Whole-genome sequencing is a comprehensive method of analysing the entire DNA sequence of an organism’s genes.

Researchers believe that whole-genome sequencing of the coronavirus could be instrumental in tracking the severity and properties of the virus.