By TRN Online, Kathmandu, July 11: With 1,237 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed on Sunday, the nation's novel coronavirus tally has reached 655,449.

In 5,535 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the past 24 hours, a total of 1,237 persons were found infected with SARS-CoV-2, informed Dr. Krishna Prasad Poudel, spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population in the regular press briefing. The RT-PCR test reports of the last 24 hours reveal that the nation's infection rate is at 22.3 per cent.

Likewise, the virus infection was detected in 594 people in 3,683 antigen tests performed in the last 24 hours. Of the new infections, 391 were detected in the Kathmandu Valley including 265 in Kathmandu, 97 in Lalitpur, and 31 in Bhaktapur.

The infection rate is the highest in Karnali Province, followed by Gandaki Province and Province 1.

Currently, there are 26,173 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation of which, 2,702 are admitted to various institutional isolation while the remaining 23,471 patients are placed in home isolation. Of the active patients, 593 are admitted to the ICU. The number of active cases is higher in people aged between 20 to 60 years.

Meanwhile, 1,533 COVID-19 patients receiving treatment in institutional isolation or staying in home isolation recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours. Nepal has now recorded 619,894 cases of recoveries.

The Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday added 20 fatalities to the nation's COVID-19 death toll. Nepal's COVID-19 death toll is currently 9,382.