'We know that there are new variants which are more transmissible. We know that human behaviour determines the spread of this virus. Therefore, it is not very relevant if we declare whether the second wave is over or not'
Alert to the looming threat from the 'Omicron' variant, states began to re-tighten curbs and urgently trace people who arrived from abroad in the last one month while a demand to not allow flights from the affected countries was made by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
Evidence from a large study of several thousand patients shows that men have higher concentrations of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 in their blood than women. Since ACE2 enables coronavirus to infect healthy cells, this may help to explain why men are more vulnerable to COVID-19 than women.
A number of senior faces from the outgoing cabinet including Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar and Prakash Javadekar are expected to figure in the new cabinet.
Is the worst of the Covid crisis behind India? As cases dip three weeks after Diwali, the answer is a possible yes, say several experts, attributing the downslide to a large section of the population already exposed to the virus during the second wave and a stepped up vaccination campaign.
With these states imposing lockdowns anew, the health ministry emphasised that the restrictions should be utilised to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in the containment and buffer zones as the key strategy for early detection of cases and fatality management.
'The second wave was more virulent, more aggressive, more transmissible.'
'If done well, the containment measures can help minimise the impact of the epidemic.'
District judge Dharmesh Sharma also said the facts and circumstances brought on the record prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused hatched another crucial part of the conspiracy to foist a false case upon the victim by planting a country made gun and four cartridges.
'Chances of getting the disease are not reduced, either after one dose or both doses of the vaccine.' 'And the probability of getting the infection -- you need to differentiate infection from disease -- by getting vaccinated is almost unaltered, be it single dose or two doses.' 'But your chances of developing moderate to severe disease, after getting infected, gets reduced with every dose you receive.'
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is yet to release the 'Playing Conditions' for the WTC final. Also, before boarding the flight to London, for the England tour, every male and female member needs to carry six RT-PCR negative results.
Two men, who were apparently part of a demonstration by Jamia Millia Islamia students on Sunday, have been admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital with "gunshot injury", sources said on Monday.
The 23-year-old photojournalist, who was gang-raped at a defunct mill complex in Mumbai nearly a week ago, has been discharged from hospital after doctors attending on her declared her "medically fit".
This is one of the many such cases that helped to create an acute fear psychosis among public sector bankers, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay in his fascinating new book Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy.
Earlier, the advisory from the Tokyo Games organisers had said that athletes from Group 1 countries, including India, must be tested every day, for seven days, prior to departure to Japan.
'We are trying to trace them.' 'We feel their phone batteries must have died because they are travelling by road.'
Its economy dependent on tourist arrivals, the hill state is looking at a summer of discontent. Not that the rest of the year promises to be any different. Ashwani Sharma reports from Shimla.
'The undiminished threat, therefore, has the potency of sustaining itself in multiple ways in the near and medium term.' 'The state agencies need to utilize innovative methods in countering radicalization and violent extremism to address this growing threat'.
The Delhi high court had earlier allowed Indian pharma major Wockhardt to sell its Ace Proxyvon tablets, which is a mixture of three salts -- aceclofenac, paracetamol and rabeprazol -- a combination that is banned.
The procurement and distribution will be centralised though the government is yet to take a call on the initial number of doses that will be procured.
Across the country, companies have stepped up their act to contain the crisis. IT and other new economy firms seem to have taken a lead.
"We have to collectively address all doubts. The vision of flexibility with which this policy was brought... We will have to show in a similar way maximum flexibility in implementing it," Modi said while addressing the 'Governors' Conference on the Role of NEP in Transforming Higher Education'.
A day after its journalist Akshay Singh who was covering Vyapam scam died under mysterious circumstances, India Today group has urged Madhya Pradesh government to send his viscera sample to a forensic laboratory outside the state, preferably AIIMS here, for a transparent examination.
The reshuffle had politics at its heart, so the biggest complement of new ministers, both Cabinet rank and below, came from UP, which will see assembly elections in a few months.
UP accounted for 14.7 per cent of all registered crimes against women in 2019. The state also recorded the highest number of cases against Dalit women.
Byju's, says Anita Kishore, has given the founders of the businesses it has acquired the independence to operate separately and maintain their core culture.
'She used to call me every day to check whether I was all right. You know how mothers are!'
Other strong men have stopped Modi and his hordes in states before, but none of them with a footprint or battle cry to shake up New Delhi, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'Restrict the amount of time you spend on social media.' 'We have people who are glued to it from morning to night, which is certainly not what we recommend.' 'And do not take the stuff that you read on WhatsApp as sacrosanct.' 'A lot of it is absolutely nonsense.'
Too much exercise and eating disorders are some of the underlying factors that may affect fertility in women, says gynaecologist Dr Archana Dhawan Bajaj,
Data from Tamil Naduindicates that NEET favours likely CBSE students. CBSE students took every third seat available in government medical colleges in the state.
'Education is disconnected from social reality and does not even attempt to solve the real problems of our country,' observe Peehu Pardeshi and Sandeep Pandey.
Eyewitnesses alleged the attackers entered the premises when a meeting was being held by JNU Teachers' Association on the issue of violence on campus and assaulted students and professors.
'We are not yet out of the woods.' 'If India sees the South African or Brazilian type of mutations, our numbers will rapidly rise.'
Hindu Sena chief Vishnu Gupta was arrested by police on Wednesday evening on an apprehension of causing a breach of peace and tranquillity, two days after his complaint about beef being served at Kerala House in New Delhi sparked a row.
The decision was taken at a general body meeting of the Resident Doctors' Association in New Delhi.
Our busy schedules, our living conditions where sunlight is often a luxury, pollution as also social mores that frown upon exposure are collectively responsible.
We knew from the moment the pandemic took hold that this would be a long haul -- at least 12 to 18 months. Nothing should have changed that assessment, says Mihir S Sharma.
'"The end" depends on two things.' 'Either you develop a vaccine which is effective or if you have a drug, you can terminate this infection very quickly.' 'Otherwise, you have to depend on herd immunity.' 'I think it should happen earlier. Far earlier, than we can imagine or achieve 'herd immunity'.'
Cutting across party lines, chief ministers and others leaders urged the people to follow the self-imposed curfew from 7 am to 9 pm, noting that "social distancing" was key to breaking the chain of infection, as the number of coronavirus cases rose to 283 after 60 new cases were detected on Saturday, the highest so far in a day, and states like Maharashtra, Odisha and Bihar imposed partial lockdown till month end.
