Kathmandu, Feb.15: The COVID-19 infection rate is decreasing in Nepal. According to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), the infection rate has declined by 16 per cent in a week.
According to Dr. Sameer Kumar Adhikari, assistant spokesperson at the MoHP, the infection rate has declined by 16.1 per cent compared with the week earlier. Among 59,459 RT-PCR tests conducted last week, 17,830 came back positives, while among 65,094 RT-PCR tests conducted this week, 17,830 returned positives.

“The infection rate is 11.4 per cent. Last week it was 30 per cent. In a week, the infection rate has declined by 18.6 per cent,” said Dr. Adhikari. According to the MoHP, among 31,221 antigen tests, 7,600 were antigen positives which was equivalent to 24.4 per cent.

Among 24,093 antigen tests conducted on last week, 3,237 tested positive for the virus, which was equivalent to 13.4 per cent. In comparison to the last week, the infection rate has declined by 11 per cent this week. With this, the average infection rate of the week is at 11.9 per cent.

According to the MoHP, the infection rate of the last 24 hours by RT-PCR tests stands at 7.6 per cent and that of antigen at 10.9 per cent. The MoHP on Monday recorded 747 new cases of COVID-19. Of them, 482 were detected through PCR tests and 265 through antigen tests.

According to the MoHP, the nationwide COVID-19 tally through PCR method reached 973,541 and that through antigen tests reached 137,677.
Of the total 8,696 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, 6,279 were Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) while 2,417 were antigen tests, informed the MoHP. According to the MoHP, the Kathmandu Valley recorded 226 new infections over that period.

The national recovery rate has increased to 96.6 per cent with active cases reducing to 20,739 Monday. According to the MoHP, 2,319 COVID-19 patients recovered from the infection during that period. Nepal has now recorded 940,902 cases of recovery.

As per the data of the MoHP, of the active cases, 809 patients are admitted to various health facilities while the remaining 19,930 are in home isolation.
Similarly, 178 individuals infected with the virus are being treated in intensive care units across the country. Similarly, another 34 patients are receiving treatment with ventilator support.

According to the MoHP, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Chitwan, Morang, Sunsari, Kaski, Banke and Kailali districts have more than 500 active cases each and districts including Jhapa, Siraha, Saptari, Sarlahi, Kavrepalanchwok, Dhading, Rupandehi and Dang have more than 200 active cases each.

75 per cent aged above 18 years fully vaccinated
The government has administered a total of 35,531,833 doses of vaccine against COVID-19 as of today. According to the MoHP, of the total population, 18,261,165 people had received their first dose of the vaccine and that 16,525,155 had received their full dose as of Monday.

Similarly, among the target group of above 18 years, 90 per cent had received their first dose and 75.2 per cent both shots. Likewise, 87.0 per cent of children aged 12 to 17 years received first dose and 41.0 percent second dose.
The MoHP has administered 745,513 booster shots of the vaccines so far. In total, 216,118 were vaccinated in the last 24 hours.