Coronavirus cases in Nepal jump to 243

Cornavirus cases in Nepal on Wednesday jumped to 243 after 109 new cases, many of them from the Indo-Nepal border area, were reported in the country in the last 36 hours, health officials said.

Nepal, which is under nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of deadly coronavirus, is among the nations that has the least number of cases of the deadly COVID-19 with no deaths.

The total number of people infected by the novel coronavirus has climbed to 243 in Nepal.

The country on Wednesday reported 24 new cases, all of them from India-Nepal border.

Earlier the health authorities reported 85 new cases overnight, including 26 from India-Nepal border area, the highest number of confirmation of virus transmission in a single day.

Many of the new cases were from Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Parsa, Rupandehi, Kapilavastu and other areas situated in the Nepal-India border area.

As most of the COVID-19 cases were reported from the Indo-Nepal border area, the government has decided to further tighten security in the southern border with the deployment of more security personnel and inter-district travel has also been restricted to stop internal transmission of the disease, officials said.

In March, the Nepal government closed its borders with India and China in a bid to prevent a possible outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the Himalayan nation.

Although the cross-border human movement was halted, the supply of goods from the countries was as usual, Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada said in March.

Nepal, which shares a 1,800-km open border with India, has a total of 37 motorable land entry points with it, while with China it has four such entry points.

Meanwhile, eight Indian nationals, who were staying in a quarantine facility in Bardiya district, have run away, according to the state-run Nepal Television.