The Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday said it recorded 16 new coronavirus cases in the 24 hours.

The country had reported two cases on Friday and three cases on Saturday.

The new cases were confirmed through 279 PCR and 642 antigen tests during the same period, according to the ministry.

The country did not report any Covid-19-related death in the last 24 hours. The countrywide death toll since the pandemic began stands at 12,020.

According to the ministry, two patients recovered in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate stands at 98.8 percent and the number of active cases at 42.

A total of 15,559 people received Covid-19 vaccines in the last 24 hours.

Nepal has seen a sudden spike in cases in the past few days.

Of the 17 people who tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, most were migrants who had returned from India. It was the highest number of positive cases recorded in a single day in the past 138 days.

According to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Population, 28 people had tested positive for the coronavirus on November 6. The number of infected cases then declined to a single digit and sometimes, even zero.

With the detection of 17 cases in a single day, especially among people arriving home from India, the Ministry of Health and Population have alerted the agencies concerned about the risks, asking them to step up surveillance.