Kathmandu, Jun 25 (IANS): More than a dozen health workers and security personnel in Nepal have been infected with the novel coronavirus since the pandemic hit the Himalayan nation, the Ministry of Health and Population said on Thursday.

According to the data made available by the Ministry to Xinhua news agency, as many as 14 health workers, including doctors and nurses, have been infected with the virus while another 10 security personnel representing Nepal Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police have also become victims of the virus, reports Xinhua news agency.

"As people of these professions come into closer contact with the COVID-19 patients in one way or another, they were infected with the virus," Sameer Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson at the Ministry, told Xinhua.

The Nepal government has so far confirmed 10,728 COVID-19 cases with 24 deaths. With over 10,000 cases, Nepal has entered into the worst case scenario as defined by the country's health ministry.

Adhikari said that no health worker or security personnel have died due to the virus infection.

While the health workers need to treat the COVID-19 patients and the security personnel are engaged in management of quarantine centres and dead bodies from the COVID-19, they remain in greater risk of being infected.

Most of COVID-19 cases have been identified among people who are in the quarantine centres, according to the Ministry.

But Adhikari said that the Nepali government has taken necessary measures to ensure that the frontliners are not infected with the virus.

Likewise, Nepal Police has also issued guidelines on managing physical and mental health of the police personnel for prolonged duty at the time of the pandemic.