Nepal on Friday recorded a new coronavirus death and 593 new cases, even as reports of 21 Covid-19 patients escaping a quarantine centre in Karnali province put authorities on high alert.
A 25-year-old woman died from the coronavirus in Dang district while undergoing treatment on Friday. The death takes the Covid-19 toll in the country to 27, the Health Ministry said in a statement.
Among the new cases, 107 are women and 486 are men, the ministry said. Now, the total number of infections in the Himalayan nation stands at 11,755.
In the last 24 hours, 48 coronavirus patients have been discharged from hospitals after successful recovery. So far, 2,698 people have recovered from the disease. At present there are 9,030 active cases in the country.
Over 2,00,000 polymerase chain reaction tests have been conducted, with 6,534 tests being done across 22 labs in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, 21 coronavirus patients, who were quarantined in a facility in Naumule Rural Municipality in Karnali province, escaped on Thursday night, news website MyRepublica reported.
The patients left complaining of lack of retesting during their 12-day stay, Chairman of Naumule Rural Municipality Badre Buda Magar told the news website. The patients wanted to get retested, believing they had recovered from the infection.
In total, the Naumule Rural centre has 94 patients. "Few of the escaped patients were brought back yesterday night and some are being brought back today,” Magar was quoted on Friday.