Amid a spurt in COVID-19 cases in some parts of the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday cautioned against complacency and directed officials to strengthen the ongoing surveillance measures, especially at international airports.
Samples of six other people, who tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving in Kalyan-Dombivli area of Thane district from different countries, have been sent for genome sequencing and the results are awaited, another official said.
The active cases have increased to 18,31,000, the highest in 232 days.
'This will not be the last time a virus threatens our lives and our livelihoods'
People aged 45 and above account for about 88 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths in India making them the most vulnerable section, the Union health ministry said on Wednesday, a day after the government opened up vaccinations for all those in the age bracket from April 1.
The country saw 1,702 new cases of Omicron variant, the highest in a single day so far, and an increase of 28.17 per cent since Saturday.
A woman who returned to Chandigarh from South Africa two days ago allegedly broke home quarantine and went to a five-star hotel in Chandigarh, prompting the authorities on Friday to order strict action against her for violating COVID protocols for travellers.
In view of cases of the Delta plus variant of COVID-19 emerging in Maharashtra, the state government on Friday announced 'state-level trigger' for imposing restrictions in administrative units irrespective of weekly positivity rate and oxygen bed occupancy percentage.
The phase 3 trial findings indicate that Covaxin induces a robust antibody response with no severe vaccine-related adverse events or deaths reported among the trial participants, the authors of the study said.
The 73-year-old man, who was found infected with Omicron in genome sequencing and who had tested negative for the infection twice, died in a Udaipur hospital on December 31, Union healyh ministry said.
As the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV-2 takes centrestage, vaccine makers in India are of the view that scaling up the existing vaccines to make them more effective is possible.
Maharashtra has so far reported 54 cases of the Omicron variant. Out of these, 22 are from Mumbai, including cases found through screening at the international airport here, as per official data.
The Chinese capital, which is battling the spread of the Omicron variant similar to Shanghai, has ordered mass testing from Tuesday in 11 of its districts, virtually covering all its 21 million population.
Neutralising antibody levels waned after six months in those who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with Covishield, Covaxin and a mix of both.
India reported an 18 per cent decrease in the new COVID-19 cases along with a 13 per cent decline in the number of deaths during the week of October 11 to 17, the World Health Organisation has said, highlighting that all the regions globally, except the European region, reported a fall in new weekly cases of the deadly virus.
'If you don't have a strong political leadership, however much expertise a country may have, in pandemic preparedness or infectious disease, will not matter.' 'It's really about having strong political leadership, that is proactive, that prioritises taking the right action.' 'And if you don't have that, then you will have a much worse pandemic experience.'
With variants cropping up at regular intervals, Jha acknowledged that they are a concern as a very rapid evolution of this virus is being seen over the time.
Of the total cases, Maharashtra has the maximum at 797, followed by Delhi at 465, Rajasthan 236, Kerala 234, Karnataka 226, Gujarat 204 and Tamil Nadu 121.
He said it took 15-25 days to recover for those who were infected with the Delta variant of the virus in March-April last year and even after recuperating, they complained about a number of problems.
'Unless we see four weeks of low and stable numbers with only minor fluctuations, we cannot call the valley as endemic just as yet'
Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Sunday said the health department will examine the reasons behind the death of the man.
Amid the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said self-awareness and self-discipline are the country's strengths in fighting against the novel variant of the COVID.
Omicron has been detected in Maharashtra (20), Rajasthan (9), Karnataka (3), Gujarat (4), Kerala (1) and Andhra Pradesh (1) and Union Territories of Delhi (2) and Chandigarh (1).
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.
'Since the Covid virus has a tendency to mutate, we can continue to expect new variants of the virus to emerge and keep circulating and recirculating in the communities.'
Speaking at a virtual conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Suchitra Ella, joint Managing Director of the city-based vaccine maker, said the company's facilities in four cities -- Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Ankaleshwar -- are currently producing Covaxin.
Genome sequencing has confirmed that the nine people have been infected with the new variant, Health Secretary Vaibhav Galriya said.
The relaxation has been given to facilitate "smooth conduct of air operations", the ministry's order stated.
Amid the continuous rise in Covid-19 cases, the Haridwar administration has banned devotees from taking a holy dip in the Ganga on Makar Sankranti, January 14.
A man who had arrived from Nigeria and six of his family members who tested Covid-19 positive and their tests had 's' gene dropout were doing well and the officials of Greater Chennai Corporation were involved in monitoring the primary and secondary contacts of his family members, Tamil Nadu Minister Ma Subramanian said on Wednesday.
With the administration of nearly 80 lakh vaccine doses in a span of 24 hours, the cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has exceeded 158.04 crore as per provisional reports till 7 am.
The second wave of Coronavirus pandemic is not yet over and the third wave depends on the Covid-19 appropriate behaviour by the people, said Randeep Guleria, the Director of Delhi AIIMS, on Friday.
The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 55 days now.
NITI Aayog member (Health) V K Paul said, "COVID-19 situation is turning from bad to worse. In last few weeks, especially in some states, it is a huge cause for worry. No state, no part of the country or district should be complacent."
They include a woman who came from Nigeria along with her two daughters to meet her brother in adjoining Pimpri Chinchwad area, the official said.
The study also noted that the booster dosage of the company's COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria also increased the immune response to Beta, Delta, Alpha and Gamma SARS-CoV-2 variants.
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.
Delhi recorded the maximum number of 238 cases followed by Maharashtra at 167, Gujarat 73, Kerala 65 and Telangana 62.
The data gaps are inhibiting sound decisions. We need to know seroprevalence, infection, and vaccination rates. This is required in 200 cities of India, every week, suggests Ajay Shah.
Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech have also stopped producing the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines respectively.
