By TRN Online, Kathmandu, April 5: A total of 113 people have been kept in isolation suspecting them of having COVID-19 across Nepal till the date.

Dr. Bikash Devkota, spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and Populaiton (MoHP), said at a regular press meet on Sunday that of the total 113 in isolation, 12 were in Kathmandu while the remaining 101 were kept in isolation at the designated places outside the Kathmandu Valley.

He said that no new case was detected in the last 24 hours while 252 samples were tested during the period.

3 new positive cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Saturday, taking the number of active cases to 8 and total to 9. A case that was confirmed over a month ago had recovered and discharged from the hospital in Kathmandu.

Dr. Devkota urged all those who recently returned home from abroad to come in contact and stay in quarantine as the country had entered into the second stage of the infection with the local transmission detected in Kailali on Saturday.

He said that sample tests for the novel coronavirus had started from 8 different places of the country including Hetauda, Chitwan, Dharan, Surkhet, Janakpur, Pokhara and Dhangadi in addition to National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) in Kathmandu.

MoHP has decided to conduct the testing of the samples of all those in quarantine spots of Kailali and Kanchanpur district, the MoHP spokesperson said.

Similarly, sample test of all those who returned to the country in the month of Chaitra (since March 14) will also be conducted by rapid tests.