By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Oct. 19: At a time when the COVID-19 cases are increasing day by day, citizens are now required to bear the expenses on their own for virus test and treatment.
The government has decided that it would bear the expenses of only economically backward people, differently abled, single women, elderly, and frontline-workers, including health workers and security forces.
“The government will bear the expenses in case of having symptoms of COVID-19 among these people,” said Dr. Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population on Sunday.
If they have insurance coverage, the expenses of tests and treatment will be deducted from the insurance, added Dr. Gautam. “Other individuals are required to pay the cost of tests and treatment of COVID-19 on their own,” said Dr. Gautam.
The decision will come into effect from today in all government, non-government and private hospitals, added Dr. Gautam.
The new decision came a few days after the Supreme Court issued an order to the government to make the COVID-19 test and treatment free of cost.
2,942 new cases
With 2,942 additional new COVID-29 cases confirmed on Sunday, the national COVID-19 tally has surged to 132,246.
"In 14,875 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the last 24 hours,   2,942 individuals were found to have been infected with COVID-19," informed Dr. Gautam.
Among 39,341 active patients, 301 are admitted to ICU and 66 are receiving treatment with ventilator support.
In addition, 12,933 patients are receiving treatment in institutional isolations and 26,408 are in home isolation.
According the MoHP, 326 COVID-19 patients, either receiving treatment at various health facilities or staying in home isolation, recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours. Nepal now registers 92,166 cases of recoveries and the recovery rate stands at 69.7 per cent.
As per the update of the MoHP, 12 patients receiving treatment at various health facilities across the nation succumbed to the novel coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours. Nepal's COVID-19 death toll has now reached 739.
Over 41% of total cases in valley
The Kathmandu Valley on Sunday added 1,698 new cases of COVID-19, which is equivalent to 57.71 per cent of the total cases recorded across the nation in the last 24 hours. Of the three districts in the valley, Kathmandu alone recorded 1,469 new cases while 130 were detected in Lalitpur and 99 in Bhaktapur.
With this, the total number of cases in the valley has reached 55,182, which is equivalent to 41.72 per cent of the total cases confirmed throughout the nation so far.