As of May 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies LF.7 and NB.1.8 subvariants as Variants Under Monitoring, not as Variants of Concern or Variants of Interest. But these are the variants that are reportedly driving the rise in Covid cases in China and parts of Asia.
Amid an uptick in Covid cases in some parts of the country, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Rajiv Behl said the severity of infections as of now is generally mild and there was no cause for worry. Speaking about new Covid variants being traced, he said genome sequencing of samples in the west and south have shown that the new variants are not severe and are Omicron sub-variants. These are LF.7, XFG, JN.1 and NB. 1.8.1. The first three are more prevalent, Dr Behl said. "Samples from other places are being sequenced and we will know in a day or two if there are more variants." The ICMR DG said there has been an uptick in cases --first from the south, then west and now from northern India. All these cases are being monitored through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP). Besides that, ICMR's nationwide respiratory virus sentinel surveillance network is keeping a watch on emerging infections and pathogens, he said. "Whenever cases increase, we look at three things. It's dependent on three factors with the first being how transmissible it is, conversely how fast the cases are increasing. Previously we saw Covid cases double in two days, but this time it is not that cases are increasing rapidly. "Secondly, are the new variants evading our previous immunity? When new variants come, they evade immunity -- be it natural or from the vaccine. But there's nothing to worry about at the moment," Dr Behl said. He also said that the third factor is the percentage of severe cases in all Covid instances. "Are we getting a very severe disease without comorbidities? As of now, the severity is generally low. There's nothing to worry about. We should be vigilant and we should always be prepared," the ICMR DG asserted. Dr Behl also informed reporters that the Union Health secretary chaired a meeting on Sunday that was also attended by the director general of health services and himself. "We have been closely monitoring the situation. We should be vigilant at this moment, but there is no cause to worry. The general public should be vigilant. There is no need to take any such action as of now," he said. The officer added that the WHO database has been showing that the new variants were not causing severe disease. "People do not need to take any immediate action. They should follow normal precautions. So, there is nothing special to do right now." Asked about the need for a booster dose, he said there is no need for vaccination as of now. "India has the capability to make vaccines and if need be, we can make any vaccine in no time."
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said there is no need to panic about COVID-19 cases, even as she asserted that the hospitals were fully prepared to tackle if the number rises.
There are 4,026 active cases in India and five fresh deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours.
Covid is growing milder with time but an occasional surge in cases is expected because the virus that causes it is now endemic and constantly evolving, say scientists while assuring that there is no cause for concern.
Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
Manik Sarkar was elected chief minister after the 1998 polls.
The India personal computer (PC) market shipment, inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations, dropped by an overall 30.1 per cent in the first quarter of CY2023 over the previous year, to only 2.99 million units, according to the latest data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker released on Tuesday. In Q1CY23, while the demand for desktops was positive, the notebook category witnessed another weak quarter as it declined by 40.8 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y). The consumer segment declined by 36.1 per cent y-o-y primarily due to slowing demand and weak market sentiment.
'Tinkering will not do. Merely staggering spectrum dues comes nowhere near solving the problem,' cautions Rahul Khullar.
Protest programmes against the hike will be held by Leftist organisations throughout the state from May 26 to May 30 and rallies will be organised on May 31, he said.
Many of these companies have a waiting period from 6-18 months now, indicating a rise in demand.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who frequently alleged during the Left Front regime that her phone was being tapped, on Thursday said an inquiry has been ordered into the matter. No rules were followed while tapping the phones of political leaders, journalists and even common people during Left Front regime. "We have asked the chief secretary, the home secretary and the Kolkata police chief to probe at whose instance such phone tapping had been done," she said.
She turned down the renewed proposal by Industry Minister Nirupam Sen that she might accept Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's offer to return 100 acres of land to unwilling farmers in Singur.
Family members of Bhadu Sheikh, the TMC panchayat leader whose killing on Monday is suspected to have sparked off the attack with petrol bombs on some 10 houses in Bogtui village on the outskirts of Rampurhat town, claimed that Sheikh's sons were among those arrested.
A senior Congress leader on Thursday alleged that a minister of the Left Front government in Tripura allegedly offered money to two gangrape rape victims to withdraw cases with the police, a charge that was denied.
Coming to the rescue of the critically endangered great Indian bustard (GIB), the Supreme Court on Wednesday mooted the idea of launching 'Project GIB' on the lines of 'Project Tiger', which was started in 1973 to save the big cats, and sought the government's view on the proposal.
Clashes were reported from some parts of West Bengal after the announcement of assembly poll results in which the Trinamool Congress trounced the Left Front with the Communist Party of India-Marxist alleging that three of its activists have been killed.
Eight ministers were on Sunday dropped from the list of contestants for the West Bengal assembly polls, with the Left Front announcing 149 new candidates, apparently to counter anti-incumbency. Assembly Speaker H A Halim will not contest the elections to the 294-member House, beginning April 18, on health grounds.As per the list, finalised at a meeting of the Left Front, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has been re-nominated from Jadavpur seat.
Govt, however, is readying new Bill that will give it more teeth to deal with such scams.
The Centre's ban on the Communist Party of India-Maoist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on Monday would make the outfit more aggressive, according to Left Front partners.
A controversy arose on Thursday over paying respects to slain former Communist Party of India-Marxist MLA Pradip Tah in the assembly when Left Front MLAs placed wreaths on the body outside the House after the authorities barred media from coming inside the premises.
A week after series of crib deaths at two state-run hospitals, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said most of the infants had been underweight and were suffering from malnutrition.
In the first major test of popularity, the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday won the elections to three civic bodies and was leading in another while the Congress and Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist bagged one each in West Bengal.
The Congress and Left Front on Thursday finalised sharing of 193 seats of the total 294 in West Bengal assembly with the Left parties getting the lion's share of 101 seats.
In the 145-year history of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, nationalist leaders like Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Bidhan Chandra Roy, also a former chief minister, graced the mayor's chair in pre-Independent India.
Measures reportedly being mulled by the government to ease telecom industry's stress and fundraising may give Vodafone Idea the much-needed breather, but structural issue undermining the sector can be fixed only with "sizable" tariff hike for 4G prepaid customers, according to a note by Edelweiss. It further observed that as Voda Idea's large liabilities are falling due, and given the impending launch of JioPhone Next (whose rollout timeline has now been pushed to before Diwali), "the sooner the government measures as well as tariff hikes are rolled out, the better it is". It is pertinent to mention here that the telecom sector has been keenly watching out for the relief package, which could include redefinition of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) to exclude non-telecom items, cut in levies such as Spectrum Usage Charges and easier terms and conditions for surrendering radiowaves to the government.
A former Indian Police Services officer, who lodged an FIR against Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and was considered very close to the Left Front government during Jyoti Basu's tenure, is among five former police officers contesting the West Bengal assembly polls on Trinamool Congress tickets.
Election will be held in 60 out of the total 294 seats in the first two phases of the eight-phased polls which is slated to stretch from March 27 to April 29. The date for the second phase of election is April 1.
The NYSE also warned that an 'LF' indicator would be appended to the company's trading symbol and profile, date and news pages provided by the Exchange, Satyam announced in a filing to the BSE and NSE on Tuesday.
In the wake of two members of the coalition demanding advancing of the 2011 Assembly elections following its repeated electoral debacles in West Bengal, the ruling Left Front has issued a gag order on public airing of views by leaders that contradicts its policy decisions.
These concept vehicles were showcased at the recent Los Angeles Motor Show.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) contention that capitalism was the only way to industrialise West Bengal has made Left Front partners aghast.
In a setback to telecom service providers, the Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the Centre's plea to recover adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of about Rs 92,000 crore from them.
The second round of the crucial Front meeting also decided that the state government would be run strictly on the basis of policies decided at the LF meetings.
Outgoing Mayor and chief of the Paschimbanga Unnayan Congress Mancha Subrata Mukherjee has won in ward 87.
Amitabh Bachchan has been awarded the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award.
Concerned over the dubious handling of politically sensitive cases by the Central Bureau of Investigation, a group of eminent citizens has written to agency chief Ranjit Sinha seeking to know whether his force really needs autonomy.
Supreme Court had on October 24 upheld government contention that non-core revenue in telecoms groups should be included in adjusted gross revenue. According to DoT's calculations, Bharti Airtel faces a liability of around Rs 42,000 crore after including licence fees and spectrum usage charges while Vodafone-Idea may have to pay about Rs 40,000 crore.
Rajneesh Gupta profiles the cricketers playing the World Cup 2019.
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