By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Feb. 21: The Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday confirmed 80 new cases of COVID-19, taking the nation's novel coronavirus tally to 273,431.

"In 3,325 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the last 24 hours, 80 persons were found infected with SARS-CoV-2," informed Dr. Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population in the regular press briefing.

Of the 80 new infections, 49 were recorded in the Kathmandu Valley.

Currently, there are 1,494 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation of which, 996 patients are receiving treatment in institutional isolation while the remaining are placed in home isolation. Likewise, a total of 68 people, mostly those who had returned from abroad are placed in quarantine across the nation.

Of the active patients, 52 are admitted to the ICU and 10 are receiving treatment in ventilator facility.

Meanwhile, 121 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 269,876 cases of recovery and the recovery rate is at 98.7 per cent.