Nepal records 323 new coronavirus cases, tally crosses 4,000-mark

Nepal on Tuesday recorded 323 new coronavirus cases, taking the total tally to 4,085, while the death toll due to the disease has gone up to 15, the health ministry said.

Of the new cases, 292 are males and 31 females. As many as 584 patients have recovered so far, the ministry said.

A 68-year-old diabetic and hypertensive man died on Monday due to COVID-19, taking the total number of fatalities to 15, it said. The health authorities have so far conducted 106,303 tests to detect the coronavirus infection.

Meanwhile, police used water cannons and batons to disperse a group of protesters demonstrating against the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Some 200 people had gathered outside the prime minister's residence at Baluwatar in Kathmandu in the morning, demanding better testing and quarantine facilities.

They were also demanding that the government should come up with alternatives to the nationwide lockdown so as to ease the hardship of the people. Nepal imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 24. The coronavirus lockdown is scheduled to run until June 14.

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Prime Minister K P Oli's government is facing criticism from various quarters over its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to critics, despite over two-month-long lockdown, the coronavirus infections and deaths are increasing in the country. Thousands of people are kept in quarantine facilities near Indo-Nepal border areas. However, those quarantine centres are becoming COVID-19 hotspots due to lack of basic sanitation facilities.

Demanding greater transparency in government spending, Nepali Congress lawmaker Gagan Thapa has also asked the government to clarify how it spent Rs 10 billion over the past two months to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

Nepal has extended the suspension of all domestic and international flights till June 14.

The surge in the coronavirus cases prompted the government to seal the Kathmandu Valley, imposing complete restriction on people entering the capital city.

In a televised address to the nation last week, Prime Minister KP Oli said his government was doing its best to prevent and control the spread of the coronavirus.

The prime minister said his government would expand the scope of the COVID-19 testing and the tests would be done on at least two per cent of the country's population, which stands at 30 million.

He said the Nepal government was working to increase the number of quarantine facilities by utilising the hotels and public infrastructures which are now not being used. 

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