The Centre has asked states and Union territories to review, amend or do away with additional Covid-19 restrictions after considering the trend of new cases and positivity rate in their regions, citing sustained downward trend in the nationwide case trajectory.
The Union health ministry on Monday reviewed the steps for health screening of international travellers arriving in India at airports and ports after two cases of Monkeypox were reported in the country.
In case the test is negative, the passenger will still have to undergo seven-day home quarantine.
The sources said 39 international passengers were found positive for COVID-19 out of the 6,000 tested on arrival in the last two days.
A day earlier confusion was created due to misinterpretation of revised guidelines by a civic official who had said that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had made rapid RT-PCR test compulsory for all the international passengers landing at the Mumbai airport, sources said.
The Reserve Bank on Wednesday allowed inbound travellers from G20 nations arriving at select airports to use the popular UPI for making payments in the country. Later, the RBI also proposes to extend the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) facility to travellers from all countries. UPI is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application, merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.
United States President Joe Biden is all set to visit India and is 'very excited' about the important initiatives he will be championing at the G20 Summit in New Delhi, according to senior White House officials.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said future decisions on COVID-19 SOPs will be taken in consultation with the Union Health Ministry and the state Task Force, amid a difference between the Centre and the state over guidelines for international travellers in the wake of the new variant of SARS-CoV2.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a review meeting with states and Union Territories on Tuesday and advised them to ramp up testing for early identification and management of cases.
The government of Maharashtra on Thursday revised its guidelines for passengers arriving in the state.
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
Strict norms for arriving international passengers, especially from 'at-risk' countries, will come into effect from Tuesday midnight and authorities are stepping their vigil for effective surveillance amid mounting concerns over the emergence of the coronavirus variant Omicron.
Delhi reported its fourth case of monkeypox on Wednesday, with a 31-year-old Nigerian woman testing positive for the disease, official sources said.
'Just the amount of work which is there just to become more and more successful in banking. For this to happen you need to have leaders who understand technology.'
The dismissal reignited an intense debate over the 'spirit of the game'.
With the Maharashtra government on Thursday amending its air travel rules in view of global concerns over the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation cancelled its previous guidelines issued to the city airport authorities and asked them to follow the revised ones as issued by the state.
According to the people aware of the matter, there are currently 10 different variants of COVID-19 in the country, with the latest being BF.7.
A 22-year-old man, who recently returned to Kerala from the UAE, allegedly died due to monkeypox on Saturday.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held talks with the members of the state COVID-19 task force. They discussed the ways to avoid crowding during the Christmas and New Year celebrations, weddings and parties at hotels and restaurants, it said.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday said that in case there were no guidelines issued by the Centre, it expected the city government to expeditiously consider the issue of early re-testing of international travellers who test positive for COVID-19 on arrival.
Three passengers, including a British national of Goan-origin, who arrived at the international airport near here on a flight from the United Kingdom on early Friday, tested positive for COVID-19, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said.
Wimbledon will allow Russian and Belarusian players to compete at the grasscourt Grand Slam as 'neutrals' this year.
The man had attended a stag party recently in Manali in Himachal Pradesh.
'As per the current state guidelines, we can have a full crowd. You need to be vaccinated with one dose or you carry a negative test report which will be checked at the entrance,' Rajasthan Cricket Association secretary Mahendra Sharma said on Thursday.
"The international travellers who arrived in Mumbai from the high-risk countries have been identified and the swab samples of 28 such persons have been sent for genome sequencing. Out of them, nine persons have already tested COVID-19 positive," Health minister Rajesh Tope said.
The ministry of civil aviation on Wednesday said only two per cent of the passengers coming from countries that are not in the 'at-risk' list will be subject to random sampling for coronavirus and such passengers will be permitted to leave the airport after giving the samples.
A 31-year-old man from Kannur in Kerala tested positive for monkeypox on Monday, making it the second confirmed case of the disease in India, a Union health ministry official said.
"Currently, 187 of the 590 passengers who returned from the UK last week are placed under institutional quarantine at various hotels," Dr Gomare said.
The report added that cult members had approached certain members of the cricket team, who are Buddhists, to influence them. The panel, constituted in November last year to assess the performance of the 2014 World Cup champions and probe the influence of the cult on team selection, has, however, recommended that "special attention" must be given to prevent the movement from making inroads into the team.
These seven countries are South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
The organizers unveiled a 'playbook' detailing COVID-19 measures that will be taken during the Summer Games this year.
The Test series, to be played in a bio-secure environment to counter the COVID-19 threat, is subject to the final approval of the UK government.
Amid fears of the spread of new Covid strain 'Omicron' looming large, two South African nationals have tested positive for the coronavirus, and their samples have been sent for further tests to ascertain about the variant, a top official said on Saturday.
The Reserve Bank on Wednesday hiked key benchmark policy rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 per cent, citing sticky core inflation. This is the sixth time interest rate has been hiked by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) since May last year, taking the total quantum of hike to 250 basis points. Announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) by a majority decided to raise the policy repo rate by 25 basis points and keep a 'strong vigil' on inflation outlook.
According to these experts, a monkeypox outbreak can effectively be tackled by strong surveillance.
Amid a rise in monkey pox cases globally, the Centre on Thursday asked states to ensure screening and testing of all suspect cases at points of entry and in the community as part of India's preparedness against the disease.
During a virtual meeting with health ministers and senior officials of states in view of the recent surge in coronavirus cases in some parts of the world, he said, "The Centre and states need to work in tandem and in a collaborative spirit as was done during the previous surges for Covid prevention and management."
He quit his job in Dubai and returned to India to spend time with his ailing mother but life doesn't always go according to plan -- and news of her death came shortly before his 14-day quarantine in Delhi was ending. A heartbroken Aamir Khan said his mother died on Saturday and he could not even attend his mother's last rites at their home in Rampur on Sunday. His quarantine would end soon but he wasn't allowed to leave.
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.
The ICMR Advisory on Purposive Testing Strategy for COVID-19 also said individuals undertaking inter-state domestic travels do not need to get tested either.
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