By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Jan. 8: With 554 new cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed on Friday, the national COVID-19 tally has reached 264,159.

"In 5,269 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the last 24 hours, 554 persons including 188 females and 366 males were found infected with SARS-CoV-2," informed the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) in its daily update.

At the same time, 207 infections including 90 females and 117 males were recorded in the Kathmandu Valley.

Currently, there are 5,021 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation of which, 1,561 are in home isolation and the remaining are receiving treatment in various institutional isolations. A total of 338 persons, mostly those who had returned from abroad, are placed in quarantine.

Of the patients receiving treatment in institutional isolation, 182 are admitted to the ICU while 37 are receiving treatment with the ventilator facility.

Meanwhile, 585 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 257,229 cases of recoveries and the recovery rate stands at 97.4 per cent.

A total of six people succumbed to the deadly virus in the last 24 hours and with this, the national COVID-19 related death tally has reached 1, 909.