Those on H-1B visas have to find a new job within 60 days or head back to India.
Responding to another question, Choubey said that the phase-I of clinical trials have revealed excellent safety of the two candidate vaccines indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and Cadila Healthcare Ltd, and now their immunogenicity testing is in progress. Their phase II clinical trials are ongoing.
Stressing on the need to protect both lives and livelihoods, he said public health action in India and across the world must be continually guided by evidence from four key questions -- how transmissible is the variant, severity of the disease it causes, how well vaccines and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection protect and how common people perceive risk and follow control measures.
"Omicron has been detected in all countries where we have good sequencing and it's likely to be in all countries around the world. It is quickly, in terms of its circulation, overtaking Delta. And so Omicron is becoming the dominant variant that is being detected," Kerkhove said during a virtual questions and answers session.
'Better to prevent than to wait for evidence. Protection delayed can also mean protection denied'
According to officials, an additional dose of vaccine is different from a booster dose.
Not enough data has been generated locally to decide on the need for a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine for those fully inoculated, say experts amid the possibility of a third wave of the viral disease hitting the country between September and October.
The decision empowers pregnant women to make an informed choice on taking the Covid vaccination, the ministry said, adding these women can now register on CoWIN or walk-in to the nearest Covid vaccination centre to get themselves inoculated.
'Someone may have diabetes, but at what level the disease qualifies as a comorbid condition is something a doctor will decide upon and certify accordingly.'
Although the Disaster Management Act for Covid containment measures, considered a hindrance in conducting the census, was withdrawn in March this year the Centre has not taken any further action on conducting the much-delayed population enumeration.
The operators say that the move to have an India-specific standard will raise the costs not only of telecom networks but of chipsets for mobile devices because they will have to be made for the local market and, as such, will not enjoy global economies of scale.
They had been told that this was part of their training for positions of travel ticket examiner (TTE), traffic assistants and clerks, and each of them paid amounts ranging between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 24 lakh to get the jobs in the Railways, according to a complaint filed with the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
Group Captain Singh was conferred with the Shaurya Chakra, India's third highest peacetime gallantry award, in August this year for averting a possible mid-air accident after his Tejas light combat aircraft was hit by a major technical problem last year.
The decision to increase the gap between two doses of Covishield from 4-6 weeks to 12-16 weeks was based on scientific decision and there was no dissenting voice among the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation members.
'The Israeli government is saying, "OK, leave northern Gaza, because we're going to fight Hamas there".' 'But Hamas is not stupid. They are going to put militants in southern Gaza too. And then what's Israel going to do?' 'At some point are they going to say, 'Leave southern Gaza too because we want to fight Hamas there? Go across the border to Egypt"'? 'That's what people are worried about. Because they fear that once they cross the border into Egypt there will be no coming back.'
'Investors should hold equity assets for 3 to 5 years.'
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will hold crucial talks with the top US leadership, including his counterpart Jake Sullivan, on the first high-level dialogue on Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET).
'The skilling gap is a serious issue.' 'We partner with the government on skilling, but as a company we have several skilling programmes, and we work closely with the partner ecosystem.
The government on Friday said there is no need to panic on the need for an immediate change in the dosage interval of Covishield vaccine, underlining that reducing the time gap requires proper scientific study in the Indian scenario.
The WHO has countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, submit complete genome sequences and associated metadata to a publicly available database.
The latest variant is the most heavily mutated version discovered so far.
It will be unfair to put a date for any COVID wave as the behaviour of coronavirus is unpredictable and a disciplined and effective pandemic response can help the country get away from any significant outbreak, COVID Task Force chief V K Paul said.
Few people know Ratan Tata as well as R K Krishna Kumar does. Widely perceived to be among the managers closest to Tata, Krishna Kumar assesses Ratan Tata, the man and business leader, in this exclusive interview to Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
The NTAGI has also stated that those having laboratory test proven SARS-CoV-2 illness should defer COVID-19 vaccination for six months after recovery, the sources said.
China said that decision is in line with the rules of the committee.
Zydus Cadila COVID-19 vaccine for children above 12 years is expected to be available by August as its trials are likely to be completed by July-end, said Dr N K Arora, Chairman, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI).
'There is no emergency of a third wave that we are rushing for booster doses.'
The Group of Ministers constituted for the creation of a separate state of Telangana on Wednesday discussed the sharing of river water and irrigation resources in Andhra Pradesh after the state's bifurcation, but failed to arrive at a resolution.
Do you know the differences between the cheetah and the leopard?
And Patrick D'Souza managed to score a perfect 100 in 4 of his attempts!
Those intending to undertake international travel for education purposes, joining employment and as part of the Indian contingent to the Tokyo Olympics will be allowed to take the second dose of Covid vaccine Covishield prior to the prescribed time interval of 84 days after the first dose.
'Where Pratidwandi is concerned, there are very few men standing.'
A new military rank system had been introduced for the PLA, but all soldiers must always obey the Communist party, reveals Jayadeva Ranade, the distinguished China expert and retired RA&W officer.
Sahu Jain Trust, a philanthropic organisation belonging to The Times of India Group announces overseas loan scholarships for higher studies abroad.
'We cannot be naughty and expect the government to do good!' 'We have to behave ourselves and then we can expect the government to support us.' 'If we are able to protect ourselves well, then we should not be having deaths.' 'Unfortunately, people have gotten into this super scary event participation (mode) -- birthday parties, large gatherings.' 'Among the people who have attended those, 80 to 90 per cent of them have come down with COVID-19.'
A private school teacher in Rajasthan's Udaipur was arrested on Wednesday while three engineering students from Kashmir were held in Agra in Uttar Pradesh for posting messages on WhatsApp celebrating Pakistan's victory over India in the T20 World Cup cricket match three days ago.
Deloitte's recruitment process will involve a resume screening, a telephonic interview, and a face-to-face interview if you apply online, says Sarvesh Agrawal.
HR Guru Mayank Rautela offers practical advice.
Amid fresh COVID-19 concerns, Karnataka government on Sunday decided to impose 'night curfew' for 10 days from December 28, between 10 PM and 5 am.
Unless you know what you are and what you are not, how will you get an appropriate job?
