Summary:

• Nepal reported its first Covid-19 death in two years on June 25, 2025.
• The victim was a 39-year-old woman from Suryodaya Municipality, Ilam district.
• She was admitted to Biratnagar-based Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital in critical condition and died shortly after arrival.
• She had symptoms like fever and respiratory problems and tested positive for coronavirus.
• This death signals the spread of new Omicron subvariants in the community.
• Whole-genome sequencing of recent Covid cases showed multiple Omicron subvariants, mainly XFG, XFG.3, and JN.1.
• Since January, 180 people from 25 districts tested positive, with 25 cases confirmed in the past week alone.
• Covid is now considered endemic in Nepal, with testing primarily focused on symptomatic individuals.
• Health officials are urging infected people entering Nepal via border points to isolate for five days.
• The Ministry of Health is working to procure rapid diagnostic test kits amid limited supply.
• Neighboring India is seeing a decline in active cases, but porous borders make variant transmission common.
• Experts warn that while the latest variants aren’t highly deadly, they still pose risks to elderly and immunocompromised people.

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