India gifts Remdesivir medicine to Nepal to treat COVID-19 patients

India on Tuesday gifted over 2,000 vials of Remdesivir medicine for the treatment of coronavirus patients in Nepal as part of the ongoing assistance to the Himalayan nation's fight against the pandemic, the Indian embassy said here.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra, on behalf of the Indian government, handed over 2,000 vials of Remdesivir to Minister of Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on Tuesday, a press release issued by the Indian embassy in Kathmandu said.

The medicines are a part of the Indian government's ongoing assistance to Nepal in meeting the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier on August 9, the Indian embassy extended ICU ventilators to the Nepal government.

India has also provided anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to Nepal to treat corona-infected patients.

Meanwhile, the Nepal government has decided to resume domestic flights from September 21. The government had suspended the domestic and international flights in March.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday took the decision to allow domestic flights and inter-district vehicular movement from September 21.

The government has already resumed international flights from September 1, though on a limited basis.

The government has allowed private and public vehicles to operate on the basis of odd and even numbers.

he country's tally of coronavirus cases on Tuesday reached 56,788 after 1,459 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours.

Jageshwar Gautam, spokesperson for the health ministry, said 10,375 coronavirus tests were conducted at various laboratories across the country in the past 24 hours.

A total of 861,780 tests have been conducted so far.

There are currently 15,779 COVID-19 active people undergoing treatment at various health facilities.

Kathmandu recorded 676 new cases of COVID-19 in a single day on Tuesday.

As many as 1,062 people, who had earlier tested positive for the coronavirus were discharged after full recovery during the period, he said.

“With this, the number of people discharged after recovery across the country has climbed to 40,638,” Gautam said.

Eleven COVID-19 deaths were recorded in various parts of the country on Tuesday, taking the total number of fatalities to 371.