By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Jan. 6: With  409 new cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed on Wednesday, the national COVID-19 tally has reached 263,193.

"In 6,706 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the last 24 hours, 409 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.

At the same time, 233 infections including 24 in Bhaktapur, 50 in Lalitpur, and 159 in Kathmandu were recorded in the Kathmandu Valley.

Currently, there are 5,133 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation of which, 3,535 patients are in institutional isolation and 1,608 are in home isolation. A total of 342 persons, mostly those who had returned from abroad, are placed in quarantine.

Meanwhile, 495 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 256,161 cases of recoveries and the recovery rate stands at 97.3 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 1,899.