KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Health and Population has projected that the coronavirus (COVID-19) infection cases in Nepal will reach a high point from the second week of June.

Minister Hridayesh Tripathi informed that 11,000 people would be infected daily from the second week of June and the number of active cases would reach 6,00,000.

The Ministry has made the projection evaluating the current trends of new fresh cases.

Minister Tripathi said that it was hazardous to find the infection of new variants in the youth and younger age group.

Meanwhile, to break the chain of transmission, the Ministry of Health has recommended to close schools for a month in big cities including the Kathmandu Valley, and conduct online classes, he said.

“The government has set a strategy to test the abroad returnees at the main checkpoint and kept in an isolation center or hospital those who have diagnosed positive for COVID-19,” he said.

Minister Tripathi said that the process of setting up a holding center with a capacity of one thousand people at the main checkpoint has started.

Stating that all the hospitals in the Kathmandu Valley have been asked to be kept in a state of readiness, Health Minister Tripathi said, “Our effort is to prevent the country from the strict lockdown.