Kathmandu, Apr. 26: Spokesperson at the MoHP Dr. Gautam once again reiterated the importance of wearing masks. Given the recent worrying rise in cases, he reminded the ministry’s request to everyone to strictly follow all COVID-19 public health safety protocols.
He explained the importance of wearing masks and urged everyone that besides being responsible and following all public health safety protocols, there was also a need for starting a campaign of questioning everyone in front of you if found not wearing masks. “If a person in front of you is not wearing a mask, start asking him ‘where is your mask,” he urged saying that this simple campaign could save lives.
“COVID-19 cases are increasing on a daily basis, if the trend continues, with a country like ours with limited resources, it will be difficult to control, so everyone should come together to fight against this as health sector alone cannot control it,” he said.
The MoHP reminded everyone of the government’s latest directive to avoid crowds, urging everyone to comply with this directive. “Do not put oneself and others at risk by organising conferences, seminar, workshops or other crowd-gathering events,” Gautam added.
Dr. Gautam also shared the latest decision of the Ministry and the Incident Command System meeting held on Sunday on various issues, including the deployment of the provincial coordinators. “Considering the latest surge in cases, and as per the government’s recent order, a high-level team comprising senior officials of the MoHP has been deployed to each of the seven
provinces to coordinate the fight against COVID-19,” said Dr. Gautam, while reading out names of senior MoHP officials deployed to each province.
Dr. Gautam also requested the media to be more vigilant and sensitive in the days by promoting mandatory use of masks while airing or publishing news.
On the occasion, Dr. Anup Bastola, Chief consultant at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, said that the latest cases showed a very worrying trend with rapid infection among youth of 30-40 and 40-50 age groups.
The new infection seems to be spreading rapidly, said Dr. Bastola, urging everyone to follow the safety precautions.
Speaking at the press briefing, Dr. Biraj Karmacharya advised everyone to follow self-lockdown if possible and stay home unless any emergency and to wear masks and strictly maintain social distancing.
Currently, there are 19,382 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation. Of them, 1594 patients are admitted to various institutional isolation and 17,788 are placed in home isolation, shared Dr. Gautam at the press briefing. Likewise, 69 people are placed in quarantine. 
Meanwhile, the number of districts with over 500 cases has now reached nine, with Morang, Parsa, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kaski, Dang, Banke and Rupandehi, according to MoHP update.

795 are from the 20- 29 age group
Meanwhile the age-group distribution of the patients shows a worrying trend, with more children and youth getting infected.
On Sunday, persons in the age group of 20-29 years had the biggest share of infections with 795 cases, followed by those of 30-39 age group with 677 cases; while children aged 10- 19 years accounted for 278 cases, according to the MoHP update. More worrying is the fact that 62 of the cases were among the children aged below nine years.
Further, 527 cases of infection were detected among the people of the age group of 40 to 49 years.