KATHMANDU, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 cases in Nepal crossed the 40,000-mark on Tuesday, as the number of cases more than doubled in a month, Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population said.
"With 1,069 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the total cases reached 40,529," spokesperson of the ministry Jageshwor Gautam said.
The cases in the Himalayan country had surpassed 20,000 on Aug. 1.
After the Nepali government loosened the nearly four-month lockdown by allowing most of the economic and social activities to resume, the number of cases has been also on the rise.
While the cases were mostly confined among the Nepali migrant workers, who had returned home from abroad, particularly from India before the lockdown was lifted, the cases are now spreading to several clusters of communities, according to the officials at the health ministry.
Suresh Tiwari, a senior official at Nepal's Health Ministry, said around 96 percent of the cases were locally transmitted, a reversal of trend observed until July.
"As many as 73 percent of total active cases are now concentrated in just 12 districts out of 77 which suggests community transmission is spreading," he said.
The capital Kathmandu has emerged as a new hotspot of the pandemic with nearly half of the total COVID-19 cases reported on Tuesday. As many as 481 cases were identified in the Kathmandu Valley in the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry.
According to the ministry, the cases are also rising among the elderly and women. "Until last month, only 1 percent elderly people were infected with the virus which has now increased to 4 percent and infection among increased to 23 percent from around 5 percent a month ago," said Tiwari.
According to Gautam, the tendency of not following the health protocol including wearing face mask resulted in increased infections in recent days.
Meanwhile, there has also been continuous rise in deaths due to the pandemic. On Sunday, the Himalayan country witnessed record high deaths of 14 people with 1,221 infections. Enditem
