KATHMANDU: Epidemiology and Disease Control Division Director Basudev Pandey has said 99 percent of coronavirus infected people in Nepal do not show any signs and symptoms.

According to Dr Pandey, 97 percent out of 16,168 people infected with coronavirus in Nepal are foreign returnees.

Pradesh 2 and 5 are the hardest-hit in terms of coronavirus infection cases among seven provinces in the country with 260,000 PCR tests conducted so far, said Pandey and added that Bagmati and Gandaki Pradesh are less affected comparatively.

The coronavirus has not reached at the community level in the country yet, said Pandey but at the same time hinted that its possibility cannot be denied in the near future.

With the relaxation of lockdown, the number of coronavirus cases have spiked in the Kathmandu Valley, according to Dr Pandey.  He said 267 people who are not from the capital have been infected.

Of them, 175 are in Kathmandu, 41 in Lalitpur and 43 are in Bhaktapur.

Out of those infected, 79 people have come to Nepal from abroad via international chartered flights, added Pandey.

Some Nepalis who arrived from Saudi Arabia, Kuwit and Maldives have been diagnosed with coronavirus.

Only 35 percent among 17,000 Nepali people who arrived in Nepal via international charted flights had coronavirus reports, according to Pandey.