Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) Saturday reported 8,591 new cases of coronavirus infection. With this, the COVID count has reached 505,643. Additionally, 389 persons have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the antigen test.

Likewise, the Health Ministry has recorded 129 deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. The ministry on May 19 recorded 246 deaths, the highest daily number. As of Saturday, the nationwide death toll from COVID-19 has reached 6,153. Presently, there are 115,806 active cases in Nepal.

Meanwhile, the three districts of Kathmandu valley have recorded 2,318 cases in the past 24 hours. Kathmandu registered 1,811 cases, Lalitpur 328 cases and Bhaktapur registered 179 cases, as per the data released by the MoHP.

Likewise, 43 persons succumbed to COVID-19 in the valley — 36 persons in Kathmandu, four in Lalitpur and three in Bhaktapur — in 24 hours.

As many as 8,848 patients of COVID-19 have recovered in the past 24 hours. As of Saturday, a total of 383,684 people have recovered from the viral disease, the data released by the MoHP showed. Presently, the recovery rate stands at 75.8 per cent.

Earlier, the MoHP on Friday had reported 8,407 cases of coronavirus infection that had taken the nationwide tally to 497,052.

As of Saturday, a total of 2,897,503 persons have undergone the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Presently, there are 115,806 persons staying in isolation while 866 others have been placed in quarantine in the country.

More than 165.94 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus worldwide while at least 3,577,039 people have died from COVID-19, following an outbreak that started in Wuhan, China, in early December, a Reuters tally showed as of 9:13 am, on Saturday, May 22, 2021.

The World Health Organisation referred to it as a pandemic on March 11, 2020.