Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, the general officer commanding-in-chief of the Northern Command, said five of the seven friction points in eastern Ladakh, where the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA are locked in a standoff since May 2020, have been resolved and talks are underway for the remaining areas.
In its weekly bulletin of December 27, released on Monday, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) said global outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 are increasingly shifting from Delta to Omicron.
Days after clusters of recombinant Delta and Omicron variants of coronavirus were reported from across the world, a leading virologist said there was no need to panic at the moment.
When a person gets an infection even after being vaccinated against it, it is called a breakthrough case.
'These number surges will be the outcome of emerging virus variants, loss of vaccine- or infection-acquired protective immunity in people, and environmental factors'
A total of 1,226 cases of COVID-19 sub-variant JN.1 have been reported in the country so far with Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh recording the highest number of cases till now, according to the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) on Thursday.
The decline in the effectiveness of Covaxin, India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, from 77.8 per cent to 50 per cent during a Delta-driven case surge in April and May this year is neither bad nor surprising, say scientists.
The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, posted recently on the preprint repository BioRxiv, found that the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants exhibited more than two-fold longer survival on plastic and skin surfaces, than the Wuhan strain.
Gaurav Gill is all set to take part in World Rally Championship (WRC) 2023 season, starting with the Acropolis Rally of Greece.
Emphasising the effect of the potential COVID third wave on children, the report said the Indian Academy of Paediatrics found that there is no biological evidence that the current and the new Delta Plus variant will affect children more than adults.
Nearly 90 per cent of the stocks comprising the National Stock Exchange Nifty 500 Index and 49 of the 50 stocks that make up the Nifty50 are trading above their respective 200-day moving averages (DMAs). The 200-DMA is considered one of the most relevant trend indicators by investors and traders. They believe that stocks and indices trading above this key level exhibit strength and are likely to rally, while those trading below this level are viewed as bearish, with the stock/index expected to see a selloff.
'There will be many Omicron cases in India, but much less hospitalisation and death than you had in the Delta wave'
Vinay K Nandicoori, Director CCMB, stressing the need to follow Covid appropriate behaviour, said there is always a concern that all these variants have the ability to escape the immunity and can infect people who are vaccinated and even sometimes infected with the previous variants of Omicron.
Neutralising antibody levels waned after six months in those who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with Covishield, Covaxin and a mix of both.
Today, with the Lok Sabha polls only months away, any inter-state dispute over the Cauvery water dispute has the potential to take more political turns than otherwise, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The government declared Monday (Dec 4) a public holiday and urged private companies to encourage 'work from home' option for its employees in Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts.
As coronavirus infections surged in Mumbai, the city could witness a peak between January 6 to 13 and take a month for the cases to see a decline, according to researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
The March 2020 lockdown did not stop the spread of infection (as it triggered a huge reverse migration from cities), but it did help to flatten the curve and gave time to scale up health infrastructure.
Government institutions and pharma industry are examining if a 'cocktail' approach to making a multi-variant Covid-19 vaccine works against multiple strains of the ever-mutating virus, reports Sohini Das.
'A patient visits for any other treatment, but a routine Covid test finds him to be positive.' 'Not only are they, but their whole family is also coming out to be positive.'
Earlier this week, the top doctors' body in the country, the Indian Medical Association, said the third wave is "inevitable and imminent", pointing out that "in many parts of the country both the government and public are complacent and engaged in mass gatherings without following Covid protocols".
'Seek medical help if after five days of the first symptom the fever has not subsided.'
E-sports experts say the burgeoning sector will not be affected by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council's recent decision to levy a blanket 28 per cent tax on online gaming, which is being viewed by the industry as a death blow to gaming companies.
'Certain groups should be more cautious, especially the 60-plus population, and the population which suffer from co-morbidities like diabetes and hypertension.'
With Omicron, the new variant of SARS-CoV2, the third wave of coronavirus could hit the peak by February with cases likely to be reaching up to 1-1.5 lakh a day in the country, but it will be milder than the second wave, Manindra Agarwal, IIT scientist involved in the mathematical projection of trajectory of COVID-19, said.
'We will continue to build new engines of growth in terms of innovations, enter newer categories, and look at newer propositions.'
Kang said that "at the moment, India is doing fine" but maintained that surveillance should be ensured to "detect signal of any changes in the behaviour of the virus".
It was on January 30, 2020 when a third-year medical student from Wuhan university tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the country's first COVID-19 patient, days after she had returned home following semester holidays.
The World Photography Organisation has revealed the winners for the Sony World Photography Awards 2024.
The UK reported 93,045 cases of coronavirus on Friday, another record high for daily infections for the third consecutive day, as Omicron overtook Delta to become the dominant variant in London and Scotland.
'In India, a deadly wave of infection with the Delta variant stole 240,000 lives between April and June and disrupted economic recovery. Similar episodes could take place in the near term,' said the report.
State Health Minister Rajesh Tope ordered a probe.
The WHO chief warned that it will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems on the brink of collapse and again disturbing lives and livelihoods.
The planned phased withdrawal of the Army from certain areas of the Jammu region has been shelved "indefinitely" in view of terror attacks being orchestrated from across the border, officials said in Srinagar.
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.
Omicron very different from Delta, Beta COVID variants, says South African doctor Angelique Coetzee.
Booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines are the easiest barrier that must be created immediately against Omicron, according to eminent virologist Dr T Jacob John, who noted that it may not seed the third wave of the pandemic, but breakthrough infections may be common due to the new variant.
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.
The Kraken COVID-19 variant accounts for almost 41 per cent of all Covid infections.
US-based electric vehicle maker Tesla is looking to source components worth around $1.9 billion this year against $1 billion last year, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday. The minister said that going forward, demand for electric vehicles will increase and it will help in pushing the growth of the sector. "Tesla already last year bought one billion dollars of components from I think all of you sitting here.... I have the list of companies who supply to Tesla.
