A day after Gujarat recorded its highest one-day surge of 17,119 new cases, five eminent doctors who are members of the task force spoke to the media.
There are around 7.5 million people aged 30 to 39, and 3.5 million of those are eligible for boosters from Monday, NHS England said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (operations) S Chaitanya issued the order under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which came into force from 1 pm on Friday and will be effective till January 15, unless withdrawn earlier.
West Bengal on Wednesday reported its first Omicron case after a seven-year-old boy, resident of Murshidabad district, tested positive for the new coronavirus variant, a senior official of the health department said.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) analysis showed that around three months after the third jab, protection against hospitalisation among those aged 65 and over remains at about 90 per cent.
The study also noted that the booster dosage of the company's COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria also increased the immune response to Beta, Delta, Alpha and Gamma SARS-CoV-2 variants.
In its weekly report on the pandemic, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday that the incidence of COVID-19 has increased globally, initially driven predominantly by transmission of the Delta variant, particularly in the European region.
A new Omicron sub-variant has been detected in the majority of samples taken from Covid patients in Delhi as part of a study at the LNJP Hospital in the national capital.
Hordes of Indians frequent temples, markets, bazaars regardless of the consequences.
In the wake of Omicron cases being detected in a few places in the country, the Union health ministry on Wednesday wrote to states and union territories, stating that patients of the new coronavirus variant have to be treated in designated COVID facilities with separate isolation area.
The 358 Omicron Covid variant cases have been detected across 17 states and union territories so far, it showed.
They include a woman who came from Nigeria along with her two daughters to meet her brother in adjoining Pimpri Chinchwad area, the official said.
'Certain groups should be more cautious, especially the 60-plus population, and the population which suffer from co-morbidities like diabetes and hypertension.'
India registered 2,68,833 new Covid infections in a day taking the tally to 3,68,50,962, which includes 6,041 Omicron variant cases, according to the Union health ministry data on Saturday.
Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party is ready for virtual election rallies and the party will follow the Election Commission's guidelines.
Daily COVID-19 caseload in India that is currently around 7,500 infections is expected to increase once the Omicron starts displacing Delta as the dominant variant, informed members of the national COVID-19 supermodel committee and predicted the third wave in India early year.
With 3,536 cases reported on an average in the week ending March 15, India contributed to only 0.21 per cent of global cases, the Union health ministry said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned visit to the United Arab Emirates in the first half of next month has been postponed, people familiar with the development said.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday asked the public not to panic about COVID-19, but be alert and follow the directives issued by the government from time to time.
Six cases of the new COVID-19 Omicron variant have been identified in Scotland on Monday, taking the UK's total to nine following three cases detected in England earlier.
India's largest online travel agency, MakeMyTrip said that it is premature to assess the impact of Omicron variant on overseas tour bookings. Others in the travel sector however are worried about cancellations in the coming days as countries tighten travel restrictions. "It is too early to assess the impact of the new Covid-19 variant on outbound travel. "Additional protocols are already set in any case from several countries which will help contain the variant coming to India.
South Africa will remain on the lowest 'level 1' of its five-level lockdown strategy to fight the COVID-19 pandemic despite the global panic around the detection of the Omicron variant in the country, President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced .
Under the new norms, passengers coming from 12 'at risk' countries/regions undergo an RT-PCR test and wait for result at the airport before leaving or taking a connecting flight
The World Economic Forum on Monday said it has decided to defer its Annual Meeting 2022 in the Swiss Alpine ski resort town of Davos in the light of continued uncertainty over the Omicron outbreak. The Annual Meeting, which was scheduled to take place in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland between January 17-21, 2022, is now planned for early summer. The World Economic Forum (WEF) held its last Davos summit, attended by top leaders from across the world, in January 2020, just before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, while the 2021 meeting could not take place due to the outbreak.
The Mumbai police said prohibitory orders under Criminal Procedure Code Section 144 will be imposed in the city from December 16 to December 31, a period covering Christmas and New Year eve, banning large gatherings as part of measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Uncertainty looms over India's export outlook, with the new Covid-19 variant Omicron spreading rapidly across the country's key shipment destinations. With the US and parts of Europe witnessing more than 100,000 Covid-19 cases a day, exporters expect some disruption. However, there may not be an immediate decline in exports from India because the order books remain strong at least for the next few weeks, they said.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 55 days now.
Madhya Pradesh health authorities on Monday managed to trace a 34-year-old woman from Botswana, a country in southern Africa where Omicron variant of coronavirus has been detected, in Jabalpur, a day after a search was launched for her as per the health surveillance guidelines to check the spread of COVID-19.
India currently does not have any XBB 1.5 variant-based vaccines available.
A new sub-lineage BA.2.75 of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in countries like India and the World Health Organisation is following this, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The WHO has countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, submit complete genome sequences and associated metadata to a publicly available database.
In a letter to the states and union territories, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan advised implementing strategic interventions for containment like imposition of night curfew, strict regulation of large gatherings, curtailing numbers in marriages and funerals besides increasing testing and surveillance.
The South African Health Products Authority (SAHPRA) on Wednesday approved the use of Pfizer's Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine after BioNTech and Pfizer announced that two doses of their vaccine may not be enough to protect against the Omicron variant.
Portugal detected 13 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant on Monday, all involving players and staff of top division soccer club Belenenses SAD, one of whose players recently returned from South Africa, health authority DGS said.
Sri Lanka will ban entry to most travellers from six southern African countries from Sunday, after a potentially more contagious new coronavirus variant called Omicron was identified in South Africa earlier this week, healthcare authorities said in Colombo on Saturday.
'We have to ensure the European situation does not occur in India and we don't see a spread like theirs.'
It also recorded 16,764 fresh COVID-19 cases and 220 more fatalities due to the viral disease.
The World Health Organisation has issued warning against XE, a new variant of Omicron first detected in the UK.
America's top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said that the new COVID-19 Omicron variant is in 'fluid motion' in South Africa and the US scientists are in 'very active' communication with their colleagues in that country to test the strain, get facts and find out whether or not it evades the antibodies.
Biden empathized on the need to get booster shots in guarding against the virus amid the spread of a new variant.
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