Covid-19 cases in Nepal rise to 54

Health authorities registered two new coronavirus cases in Nepal's Rautahat District, which took the nation-wide tally of Covid-19 positive cases to 54 on Tuesday.

"A total of 83 samples were sent to Kathmandu for test out of which two samples tested positive at National Public Health Laboratory," Mahesh Shah, Chief at District Health Office Rautahat told over phone.

"One of the new patient aged 25 recently returned from Kolkata, India, and was in quarantine for two weeks and then sent home. He was screened by the medical team from the Janakpur Provincial Health Team using Rapid Diagnostic Kit (RDT) which then resulted negative. We are tracing him right now," Shah added.

As per the official, the second new case of the infection was reported in a person currently in quarantine at Dewahi.

On February 25, Nepal reported the first case of SARS-CoV-2 in entire South Asia in a student who returned from China.

Nearly after a month second case of COVID-19 was reported on March 23 which by the end of April increased by at least three times. Following the confirmation of the second imported case, the Nepal government imposed a nationwide lockdown from March 24 which has been extended till May 7.

( With inputs from ANI )