KATHMANDU: As many as six people have been infected with Covid-19 in the Kathmandu Valley in the last 24 hours.

Tests conducted at the National Public Health Laboratory, Teku, has confirmed coronavirus infection in five people from Kathmandu and one from Lalitpur.

With this, the total number of infected people in Kathmandu Valley has reached 347.

Speaking at a press briefing on Sunday,  Dr. Basudev Pandey, Director at Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, said that most of the infected people in the Kathmandu Valley are foreign returnees.

He said that some of them were found infected even though they had not traveled anywhere. He said that community level samples were collected from 12 different places in the Kathmandu Valley.

He said that out of 3,000 samples collected, only three were infected with the virus.

He informed that a total of 45,000 swabs will be collected, of which 5,000 samples will be taken from the Kathmandu Valley residents alone.

As the number of infected people in the Kathmandu Valley has increased, the government has started collecting samples from the community.

The samples were collected from 12 areas of the valley including Nakhutole, Koteshwor, Sankhamul, Budhanilkantha, Kapan, Tribhuvan International Airport, Dilli Bazaar, Kageshwari Manohara and Tokha, Dr Pandey said.

Of the 3,000 samples collected so far, 1,600 have been tested and only three samples tested positive for coronavirus.

He said that screening of samples collected from people working on the forefront including banks and financial institutions, Land Revenue Office, security and health sector has started.