By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Jan. 20: With 318 new cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed on Wednesday, the national COVID-19 tally has reached 268,310.

"In 5,012 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the last 24 hours, 318 persons were found infected with SARS-CoV-2," informed Dr. Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) in the regular press briefing.

Of the new infections, 145 cases including 145 in Kathmandu, 116 in Lalitpur and three in Bhaktapur were recorded in the Kathmandu Valley.

Currently, there are 3,693 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation of which, 829 are receiving treatment in various institutional isolation and 2,864 are placed in home isolation. Also, 172 persons, mostly those who had returned from abroad, are placed in quarantine.

Likewise, 165 COVID-19 patients are admitted to the ICU and 33 are receiving treatment with the ventilator facility.

Meanwhile, 383 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 262,642 cases of recoveries and the recovery rate is at 97.9 per cent.