With 18 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed on Saturday the nation's novel coronavirus tally has reached 978,732.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, in 3691 Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests done in the past 24 hours, a total of 18 persons were found infected with SARS-CoV-2, informed the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) in its regular update.

Likewise, no virus is detected in 1256 antigen tests performed in the last 24 hours.

Currently, there are 283 active cases of COVID-19 across the nation of which, 2 are admitted to various institutional isolation while 281 patients are placed in home isolation.

Meanwhile, 17 COVID-19 patients receiving treatment in institutional isolation or staying in home isolation recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours. Nepal has now recorded 966497 cases of recovery, and the recovery rate is at 98.8 percent.

The MoHP on Saturday reported no COVID-19-related fatalities to the nation's COVID-19 death toll, which has now reached 11,951.