By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Jan. 3: With 421 new cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed on Sunday, the national COVID-19 tally has reached 261,859.

"In 5,800 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the last 24 hours, 421 persons were found infected with SARS-CoV-2," informed Dr. Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson of Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) during the regular press briefing.

At the same time 197 infections were recorded in the Kathmandu Valley of which 11 were found in Bhaktapur, 26 in Lalitpur and 197 cases were detected in Kathmandu.

Currently, there are 5,477 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation of which 3,521 are at institutional isolation and 1,966 patients are in home isolation. A total of 367 persons, mostly those who had returned from abroad, are placed in quarantine.

Some 199 are admitted to the ICU and 35 are receiving treatment with ventilator facility.

Meanwhile, 637 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 254,494 cases of recoveries and the recovery rate stands at 97.2 per cent.

A total of eight people succumbed to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours and with this, the national COVID-19 related death tally has reached 1,878.