A video clip of the purported remark quickly went viral on social media, prompting local BJP MLA Raj Prasad Upadhyay to seek action against the doctor.
Amid an uptick in Covid cases in some parts of the country, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Rajiv Behl said the severity of infections as of now is generally mild and there was no cause for worry. Speaking about new Covid variants being traced, he said genome sequencing of samples in the west and south have shown that the new variants are not severe and are Omicron sub-variants. These are LF.7, XFG, JN.1 and NB. 1.8.1. The first three are more prevalent, Dr Behl said. "Samples from other places are being sequenced and we will know in a day or two if there are more variants." The ICMR DG said there has been an uptick in cases --first from the south, then west and now from northern India. All these cases are being monitored through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP). Besides that, ICMR's nationwide respiratory virus sentinel surveillance network is keeping a watch on emerging infections and pathogens, he said. "Whenever cases increase, we look at three things. It's dependent on three factors with the first being how transmissible it is, conversely how fast the cases are increasing. Previously we saw Covid cases double in two days, but this time it is not that cases are increasing rapidly. "Secondly, are the new variants evading our previous immunity? When new variants come, they evade immunity -- be it natural or from the vaccine. But there's nothing to worry about at the moment," Dr Behl said. He also said that the third factor is the percentage of severe cases in all Covid instances. "Are we getting a very severe disease without comorbidities? As of now, the severity is generally low. There's nothing to worry about. We should be vigilant and we should always be prepared," the ICMR DG asserted. Dr Behl also informed reporters that the Union Health secretary chaired a meeting on Sunday that was also attended by the director general of health services and himself. "We have been closely monitoring the situation. We should be vigilant at this moment, but there is no cause to worry. The general public should be vigilant. There is no need to take any such action as of now," he said. The officer added that the WHO database has been showing that the new variants were not causing severe disease. "People do not need to take any immediate action. They should follow normal precautions. So, there is nothing special to do right now." Asked about the need for a booster dose, he said there is no need for vaccination as of now. "India has the capability to make vaccines and if need be, we can make any vaccine in no time."
The Centre on Saturday night announced that the probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET will be handed over to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation.
The Pakistan army's Bahawalpur Corps has always had a special significance for India as it keeps an eye on the Jaish e Mohammed, explains Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan reviewed the status of passengers coming from the UK to India and found positive in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Goa, Punjab, Gujarat and Kerala and their response measures in a meeting held through video conferencing.
The drug comes in powder form in a sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water. It accumulates in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production.
Enraged by the sexual assault, the victim's family and passengers thrashed Kumar.
Maheshwari, 59, the chief of the country's largest paramilitary force with a strength of about 3.25 lakh personnel, his predecessor and senior security advisor in the Union Home Ministry K Vijay Kumar, 67, and about two dozen officials in this chain have gone into self-quarantine after the doctor was found infected on April 2.
Ramdev has defended the medicine saying it has nothing to do with the birth of a son or daughter
As Odisha and West Bengal are bracing for a severe cyclonic storm, governments of both states started evacuating people and while deciding to close educational institutions in vulnerable areas.
More than 600 people have visited hospitals and medical camps in Puri. However, only over 130 have been admitted to hospital, said Director of Health Services, Bijay Mohapatra.
The remarks come amid suspected cases of COVID-19 reinfection being reported from abroad and from Indian states like Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab and Maharashtra.
In an interaction with PTI editors at its headquarters in New Delhi, Baniwal also said no distinction is made in the treatment meted out to the inmates and it is ensured they get the same basic right.
Climate change has hampered the ability of the forecasting agencies to accurately predict severe events and weather bureaus across the world are focusing on augmenting the observational network density and the weather prediction modelling to improve predictability, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra has said.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday said Tihar authorities were 'lying' about specialist doctors examining Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, while his wife Sunita Kejriwal alleged that he was being denied insulin for diabetes as 'they want to kill' him.
A massive fire that ripped through a seven-storey shopping mall in Dhaka overnight killed at least 46 people and injured 22 others, the government said on Friday, in one of the worst infernos to hit Bangladesh in recent years.
Nine National Disaster Response Force teams were deployed for rescue operations following one of the worst railway disasters in India that killed at least 278 people and injured more than 900. According to official data, the force rescued 44 victims and retrieved 121 bodies from the spot.
The seizure, as per officials, is estimated to be worth over Rs 10 crore in the international market (about Rs 5K-7K per blot) and all the six who have been taken into custody, beginning late last month, are students and youngsters who wanted to make 'easy money' by remaining anonymous within the deep layers of secret internet-based apps and messenger service like WICKR.
The inquiry committee, set up by Uttarakhand government to examine the controversial infertility medicine produced by Ramdev's pharmacy, has submitted its report which is "not in favour" of the Yoga guru.
The three assailants who killed gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf posed as journalists, carrying video cameras, mics and media identity cards, the Uttar Pradesh Police said on Sunday.
Mandaviya reviewed the pandemic situation, status of vaccination drive and the global scenario of new variants of Covid.
Kumar, a 1992-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, is currently an additional secretary in the ministry of electronics and Information Technology.
Commercial launch and supply to major government and private hospitals is expected in mid-June.
The stir, led by the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association, has been going on for several days, and FORDA also said that several of its members were 'detained' when they tried to hold a protest march from Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) to Supreme Court.
"We have made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterised as a pandemic," WHO DG Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "WHO's mandate is public health. But we are working with many partners across all sectors to mitigate the social and economic consequences of this COVID-19 pandemic," he added.
The CoWIN portal will be made available in Hindi and 14 regional languages by next week, while 17 more laboratories will be added to the INSACOG network to monitor the variants of COVID-19, the health ministry said on Monday.
Food delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy reported a nationwide outage on Wednesday. Both the platforms witnessed technical glitches and were unresponsive for almost an hour. Downdetector, a platform that collects status reports from a series of sources, recorded about 3,619 reports of outage against Zomato at 2:05 PM and about 771 reports of outage against Swiggy at around 2:21 PM. According to the sources, the outage was caused by Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud-services platform, which runs both platforms. Though Swiggy and Zomato are working now, some customers reported that the issue has not been solved completely and they are not able to place orders and there are payment related issues.
The world is witnessing the fourth surge of the COVID-19 pandemic and India has to be on guard and cannot afford to slacken, said Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Friday.
'There's also a possibility of the cyclonic system changing its course, thus avoiding a landfall in Odisha'
A triumphant Khan returned to his Lahore home on Saturday after having locked himself in the Islamabad high court premises for hours for fear of re-arrest despite being granted bail on Friday.
Both civil and criminal action was being initiated against the hospital which was severely indicted of lapses by a probe panel in its report pertaining to the death of the seven-year-old girl, an official spokesperson said.
The Union health ministry on Wednesday dismissed media reports claiming there was dissent from technical experts about increasing the gap between two Covishield doses and said the decision was based on scientific reason about the behaviour of adenovector vaccines.
All COVID vaccines do not prevent infection and are primarily disease-modifying, said Dr Balram Bhargava, director general, Indian Council of Medical Research on Thursday.
The civil aviation ministry had last week suspended all flights between the European country and India from December 23 to December 31 as a mutated variant of the coronavirus was detected there.
The Fortis group, meanwhile, said that all documents, statements and details required by the probe team of the Haryana government were provided.
"All those who were involved in rescue operations at Kozhikode Airport should go into self-quarantine. State Government will conduct COVID-19 tests of all," said K K Shailaja.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the preparedness to deal with the situation arising out of the likely formation of Cyclone Jawad that is expected to hit the North Andhra Pradesh-Odisha coast and directed officials to take every possible measure to ensure that people are safely evacuated.
"The coronavirus outbreak in the 31st battalion of the force has been viewed seriously. The Director General (DG) has directed to gear up the force to face the challenge of the pandemic during 'hotspot policing' duties and while rendering other security related tasks," a senior officer said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Saturday briefed about the new 'Omicron' variant of the coronavirus, and he asked officials to review the plans to ease international travel restrictions in light of the 'emerging new evidence.'
People must also avoid mass gatherings, and new year celebrations need to be at low intensity, the government said.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances