The IOC and Japanese government in March took the unprecedented decision to delay the Games, which had been due to start in July, for a year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
He said though there is a spike in new cases, the situation is under control as not many people are developing severe disease or require hospitalisation.
Sunday's tally of coronavirus cases was 17 per cent higher than the 2,716 infections registered a day before.
The positivity rate dipped to 0.12 per cent.
Vardhan, who interacted with chief ministers, state health ministers, principal secretaries and additional chief secretaries of Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Goa through video conferencing and urged them to focus on effective clinical management of COVID-19 cases to reduce deaths in the first 24, 48 or 72 hours.
These decisions were taken by the ministry based on the fresh recommendations by The National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) and have also been communicated to the states and union territories, an official statement said.
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.
Satwik and his doubles partner Chirag Shetty, who had claimed the Commonwealth Games silver in 2018 and won the Thailand Open Super 500 last year, were recommended for the Arjuna Award jointly.
'Never before had I heard or seen anyone of this age dying due to COVID-19. This is the first I believe. The situation is really scary'
The expert noted that in India the pandemic is unlikely to be over in the months to come, and the number of people getting infected will continue to rise.
In view of the surge in the coronavirus cases, a night curfew will be enforced in Bengaluru and six other cities in Karnataka from 10 pm to 5 am starting Saturday, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa announced.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive David White said Seifert had returned seven negative tests in the 10 days leading up to his pre-departure protocols, and was confident he would be receiving the best of care from his franchise.
Some Porto residents fear a spike in infections because of the highly contagious coronavirus variant spreading in parts of England after first being identified in India.
The Navy and the Coast Guard continued the search for the nine missing personnel from the barge and 11 from Varaprada even as hopes of finding more survivors of the Cyclone Tauktae fury receded, an official said.
Passengers arriving from any state to Bengaluru must be in possession of a RT-PCR negative report, Karnataka Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said on Thursday.
'Indiscriminate use results in resistance to pathogens, rendering these life-saving drugs useless.' 'Unnecessary antibiotic treatment could have other detrimental health effects that affect immunity and metabolism,' notes Aparna Kotekar.
The move comes in view of rising cases of the infection, weekly positivity rates and weekly deaths in some districts.
Delhi Capitals and India all-rounder Axar Patel has rejoined his Indian Premier League side after staying in a medical care facility in Mumbai for nearly three weeks following a positive test result for COVID-19.
A total of 25,12,388 samples have been tested for coronavirus infection as on 9 am, May 20 all over the country.
Kerala's iconic Thrissur Pooram, considered as the festival of festivals in the state, will be held this week without people's participation, considering the surge in Covid-19 cases in the southern state, officials said Thrissur on Tuesday.
"Currently, 187 of the 590 passengers who returned from the UK last week are placed under institutional quarantine at various hotels," Dr Gomare said.
All athletes and staff took daily PCR tests during their time in Japan and their movements were heavily restricted.
The World Health Organisation has said it is 'not yet clear' whether the newly-detected coronavirus variant Omicron is more transmissible or causes more severe disease compared to other variants, including the highly-transmissible and globally prevalent Delta variant.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Satav died on Sunday, days after recovering from the coronavirus infection, hospital sources said.
An IED stuffed with RDX and ammonium nitrate was found inside an unattended bag at the Ghazipur flower market in New Delhi on Friday morning but it was later defused, officials said.
Despite severe restrictions imposed on the number of bulls, bull-tamers and spectators thanks to the pandemic, Jallikattu organisers are hopeful of the show going on this Pongal.
With the dizzying rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country, India Inc has transitioned from a wait-and-watch policy to full-on emergency mode, bringing back remote and flexi work, stringent safety protocols, and allowing only essential travel. Companies - especially in metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata - that had adopted a hybrid work model during the last few months when the caseload remained low, are either switching back entirely to work-from-home (WFH), or calling skeletal staff to office on select days. Take the case of cigarettes-to-hotels major, ITC, which had been on a hybrid work model over the last few months.
The former Maharashtra chief minister in his letter pointed out the high mortality rate in the state and alleged that the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress government was neglecting Vidarbha, Marathwada and North Maharashtra in the fight against the pandemic.
The CSIR DG said the transmissibility of the new strain N501Y is a "bit higher" but this does not mean it is more lethal and more people are going to die due to it.
The civic body also informed that those kept in institutional quarantine will be discharged only when they test negative for the virus. Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal took the decision to allow testing without medical prescription in view of increase in the number of private laboratories and their capacity, it said in a release.
IPL 2021, which started on April 9, ran smoothly for about a month before the outbreak of COVID-19 cases among the teams forced the BCCI to postpone the T20 league.
The bank expects to grow loan book by 10 per cent in the current financial year with calibrated exposure to corporate accounts and thrust on the retail segment.
The COVID-19 active caseload remained below four lakh for the third consecutive day.
The State Election Commission, it said will fasten responsibility on gazetted officers for the observance of COVID-19 protocols at counting centres.
Local trains will be allowed to operate with 50 per cent capacity till 7 pm, while all shopping malls and markets will be allowed to remain open till 10 pm but with half their capacities, he said.
This is the highest number of cases since December 13 when 1,984 people tested positive for the virus, according to official data.
It is learnt that neither Head Coach Ravi Shastri nor captain Virat Kohli sought any written permission from the BCCI to attend the former's book launch at the team hotel.
After long discussions, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and England and Wales Cricket Board had said more test results will be taken into consideration before taking a call on the match getting underway.
The World Health Organisation team's visit has become a bone of contention as Beijing, which questions the widely-held view about the virus' origins in Wuhan, had delayed granting permission to it.
Only 30 ICU beds for COVID patients were available in hospitals across Delhi at 10 pm, according to government data.
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