By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Jan. 19: With 259 new cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed on Sunday, the national COVID-19 tally has reached 264,780.

"In 3,399 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the last 24 hours, 554 persons were found infected with SARS-CoV-2," informed Dr. Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson at Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) during the regular press briefing.

At the same time, 126 infections including nine in Bhaktapur, 18 in Lalitpur and 99 in Kathmandu were recorded in the Kathmandu Valley.

Currently, there are 4,422 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation of which, 3,243 patients are receiving treatment in institutional isolation and 1,179 are in home isolation. A total of 257 persons, mostly those who had returned from abroad, are placed in quarantine.

Of the patients receiving treatment in institutional isolation, 191 are admitted to the ICU while 44 are receiving treatment with the ventilator facility.

Meanwhile, 513 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 258,441 cases of recoveries and the recovery rate stands at 97.6 per cent.

A total of five people succumbed to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours and with this, the national COVID-19 related death tally has reached 1, 917.