KATHMANDU: The Kathmandu Valley has reported 38 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

Dr. Jageshwor Gautam, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health and Population, urged people to abide by the health safety guidelines issued by the Ministry and WHO and informed that the densely populated area like Kathmandu can be worst hit by the pandemic.

Offering the details about the lab-wise report, he informed that the Valley saw 38 cases in the last 24 hours. Altogether 32 swabs from Kathmandu, 5 from Lalitpur and 1 from Lalitpur came out positive on Friday.

Public health experts suggest that Kathmandu, being a densely-populated city, is highly vulnerable at the time of crisis like COVID-19.

“Kathmandu Valley is highly vulnerable to the pandemic and provided the pandemic reaches at the community level, the health situation will aggravate,” Dr. Basudev Pandey, the Director of Epidemiology and Infectious Disease Control Division said.

He added that the situation will be too tough to handle once it spreads to the community level.

According to him, more than 70% chances of transmission can be avoided simply by wearing masks properly.

Interestingly, according to Dr. Gautam, over a thousand people have been fined for not wearing masks.