Earlier today, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said that four more cases of Omicron have been detected in the national capital, taking the city's count to 10. Jain said there are currently 40 people, who are suspected cases of the variant, admitted to Lok Nayak Hospital, of whom 38 are Covid-19 positive. “None of the cases have displayed any severe symptoms till now," he said.
Meanwhile, India on Thursday recorded 7,974 Covid-19 cases and 343 deaths. With 7,948 recoveries, the active cases in the country stood at 87,245.
Covid shot for kids above 3 years will be ready in 6 months: Adar Poonawalla
With the opening of schools across the country underscoring the need for the Covid vaccination drive to cover children, Covishield manufacturer Serum Institute of India’s CEO Adar Poonawalla said Tuesday that SII is
to launch a vaccine for those below the age of 18 “all the way down to the age of three” within the next six months.
Speaking at the 27th CII Partnership Summit 2021 during a virtual conference, Poonawalla said the vaccine, Covovax, is under trial.
“We are going to be launching a vaccine in six months for children all the way down to the age of three… At the moment, Covishield is not recommended or approved in people below the age of 18 so that’s why Covovax is under trials and has shown excellent data all the way down to the age group of 3,” he said.
Vadodara city on Friday reported two Covid19 cases of Omicron variant -- the first in the city since the outbreak of the new strain. According to the health department, two senior citizen travellers from Zambia, which is a non-risk country, tested positive for the Omicron strain in the Genome Sequence.
The travellers had arrived in India from Zambia on December 7 and had been under self-monitoring at home as per the prevalent guideline, officials said. While one positive patient is a female of 67 years, the second is a 75-year-old male from the Fatehpura area of the city.
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"The two underwent a routine RTPCR test at the insistence of their relatives and were found to be positive on December 12. As a precautionary measure, even in a non-high risk country, we have isolated at home and sent a sample for Genome Sequence at GBRC, Gandinagar. The Omicron variant report arrived on Friday and was positive for the genome B.1.1.529. All primary close contacts have been traced and testing is underway," said Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) Medical officer for Health Dr Devesh Patel. --ENS
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved Covid-19 vaccine Covovax, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), for emergency use. Sharing the information, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said, “This is yet another milestone in our fight against Covid-19, Covovax is now WHO approved for emergency use, showing excellent safety and efficacy. Thank you all for a great collaboration.”
As many as 28 people who arrived from both 'high-risk' and 'non-risk' countries till date have tested Covid-19 positive along with S-gene drop, raising the suspicion of being infected by Omicron, Tamil Nadu Minister Ma Subramanian said on Friday. The Minister for Medical and Family Welfare said the samples of the 28 passengers have been sent for genomic sequencing analysis. Talking to reporters, here, Subramanian said he would seek the Centre's approval to hold mandatory RT-PCR testing on passengers arriving from 'non-risk' countries on completion of their seven-day home quarantine. --PTI
The Health Ministry on Friday said 101 cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19 infection have been recorded across 11 states so far. Briefing the media, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agrawal said, “Omicron variant reported in 91 countries in the world. WHO has said that Omicron is spreading faster than the Delta variant in South Africa where Delta circulation was low. It’s likely Omicron will outpace Delta variant where community transmission occurs, WHO added.”
Warning against lowering the guard to prevent the disease, ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava said, “This is the time to avoid non-essential travel, mass gatherings and it is very important to observe low-intensity festivities.”
Three passengers, who arrived in Goa from the United Kingdom on Friday morning, tested positive for coronavirus and their samples were sent for genome sequencing to know whether they are infected with the Omicron variant, a state minister said. In a tweet, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Friday said, "Three patients tested positive from a flight that arrived today morning from the UK. Their samples have been sent for genome sequencing, reports awaited." These three passengers arrived in the state in the 101st flight under the government's Vande Bharat Mission from London's Heathrow Airport, the Goa airport authorities said. --PTI
A Zimbabwe-based NRI man, his wife and brother-in-law, who had contracted the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Jamnagar city of Gujarat earlier this month, have now tested negative for the infection, PTI reported. They have been given discharge from the hospital. They were the first three patients of Omicron variant in Gujarat, which later reported two more cases in Surat and in Mehsana. "All the three Omicron patients have recovered from the infection. Their latest COVID-19 tests gave negative results, following which the trio was given discharge from the hospital. The Omicron ward is now empty," said Dr Saugata Chatterjee, nodal officer for Covid-19 at the government-run G G Hospital in Jamnagar city.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said 10 new cases of the new Covid variant Omicron have been detected in the national capital, taking the tally to 20. Ten of these patients have been discharged, he said.
The minister said 10 out of the 40 samples sent for genome sequencing tested positive for the new variant. The minister had on Thursday said many international travellers are turning out Covid positive upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. (PTI)
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has started distributing free Covid-19 home test kits to international travelers, the agency said Thursday.The CDC said it began distributing the kits Wednesday and is giving them out at Minneapolis-St Paul, Miami and Chicago O'Hare and will soon add Dallas-Fort Worth. It plans to add four additional unidentified international airports in the coming weeks.
The CDC encourages — but does not mandate — international air travelers to get a new Covid-19 test upon arriving in the United States.New rules took effect on Dec. 6 to require nearly all people flying to the United States to obtain a negative Covid-19 test within one day of travel. (Reuters)
Three passengers, who arrived in Goa from the United Kingdom on Friday morning, tested positive for coronavirus and their samples were sent for genome sequencing to know whether they are infected with the Omicron variant, a state minister said.
In a tweet, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Friday said, "Three patients tested positive from a flight that arrived today morning from the UK. Their samples have been sent for genome sequencing, reports awaited." These three passengers arrived in the state in the 101st flight under the government's Vande Bharat Mission from London's Heathrow Airport, the Goa airport authorities said. (PTI)
US President Joe Biden warned on Thursday that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is going to spread more rapidly in the United States and that a winter of severe illness and death awaits the unvaccinated.
Getting an update on the pandemic from top health advisers, Biden also said it is past time for people to get booster shots and urged them to do so as quickly as possible.
“We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death” for the unvaccinated, Biden said. At least 36 states have reported confirmed Omicron cases, officials from the Centers for Disease Control said on Wednesday.
The premier of Australia's most populous state said he is not considering lockdowns or other restrictions as a record 2,213 new Covid-19 cases were reported on Friday, the highest number since the pandemic began.
The new peak followed the 1,742 cases reported in New South Wales state on Thursday, which had topped the previous record set in September. One new death was reported Friday and 215 people were in the hospital, well below the peak of 1,266 in September. (AP)
Bars, restaurants, stores and entertainment venues across the Canadian province of Quebec will be required to operate at 50% capacity beginning Monday because of a surge in coronavirus cases from the new omicron variant.
The rule was were announced Thursday by Quebec Premier Francois Legault as part of a series of new pandemic restrictions after forecasts that hospitals in the province could reach capacity for Covid-19 patients within weeks.
Quebec reported 2,736 new coronavirus cases for the previous 24 hours — the highest daily number since Jan. 8. Legault said health officials expect to announce 3,700 new infections Friday. (AP)
Five more cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19 were detected in Karnataka on Thursday, state Health Minister K Sudhakar said. Out of them, three have foreign travel history –UK, Nigeria and South Africa– while two have returned from Delhi recently. These new additions have taken the total number of Omicron cases in Karnataka to 8 now.
Four more people have tested positive for Omicron variant Hyderabad, taking the total number of the variant cases to 7 in Telangana, as per the health department.
The Omicron variant of coronavirus infects and multiplies 70 times faster than Delta and the original COVID-19 strain, but the severity of illness is likely to be much lower, according to a study. The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study provides the first information on how the novel variant of concern infects human respiratory tract. More details here.
A fully vaccinated woman with no travel history tested positive for the new coronavirus variant in Gujarat's Mehsana district. According to Mehsana chief district health officer, Dr Vishnu Patel, the woman is asymptomatic and stable.
The Puducherry government has relaxed curbs for Christmas and New Year celebrations despite extending the lockdown till January 2.
In an order issued on Wednesday, it stated that the night curfew, which will be in place from December 15 to January 2, has been relaxed on December 24 and 25 for Christmas celebrations. On December 30, 31, January 1 and 2, its timing will be from 2 am till 5 am. Night curfew usually comes into effect at 11 pm and is in place till 5 am.
Social and cultural gatherings have also been permitted during the aforesaid period, but people have been asked to adhere to all Covid-19 norms. Read more
None of the three approved Covid-19 vaccines in the United States — Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson — offer sufficient protection against the Omicron variant with their routine doses, but the protection does increase with booster shots, a new study has found.
The study, conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard and MIT, found “low to absent” antibody neutralisation of the Omicron variant with the routine doses, Reuters reported. The study, however, found that people who had received booster doses showed potent neutralisation.
Meanwhile, England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty warned of difficult times ahead for the country, which has been experiencing the fastest spread of the Omicron variant. Read more
A Canadian molecular biologist, on Wednesday, told cross-party members of Parliament (MPs) on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan region of China is now the more likely origin of the Covid-19 global pandemic.
Dr Alina Chan, specialising in gene therapy and cell engineering and co-author of ‘Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19’, told the Parliament panel’s evidence session on scientific research that the pandemic was being caused by the unique feature of the coronavirus called furin cleavage site, which has been linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Asked by the panel about the probability of a lab leak as the origin of the pandemic, Chan said a lab origin is more likely than natural origin at this point. Read more
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday that 10 cases of Omicron have been detected in the capital so far and 40 people are admitted to the special facility at Lok Nayak Hospital meant for isolating and treating suspected cases of the new Covid variant. Of the 40, 38 are Covid-19 positive.
The minister said many international travellers are turning out Covid positive upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. "Eight such people were admitted to the hospital today (Thursday)," he said. (PTI)
Delhi on Thursday reported four more cases of Omicron, taking total count to 10, PTI reported Health Minister Satyendar Jain as saying.
The national capital had last reported four new cases of the variant on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the first patient to be infected with Omicron in Delhi was discharged from the LNJP hospital, officials said.
Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla will hold a regular review meeting with Union Territories later today at the Home Ministry through video conferencing, over the Covid-19 situation, news agency ANI reported. Health Secretary and other concerned officials will also join the conference.
West Bengal reported its first case of Omicron on Wednesday as a seven-year-old boy tested positive for the variant of the coronavirus in Kolkata.
The child, a resident of Murshidabad, had come to Kolkata via Hyderabad from Abu Dhabi a few days ago with his parents. Both parents have tested negative. The boy is in isolation and undergoing treatment at a local hospital in Murshidabad district.
According to senior health officials, another test would be done soon. Read more
What makes Omicron different from other variants? Does it actually cause a milder form of Covid-19? How worried should we be about it? And does India need to start giving out booster shots as well? To answer these questions and more, listen to The Indian Express podcast, where we speak to Dr Anurag Agarwal, India’s top genome sequencer and the Director of CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. Click here to hear the podcast ?
A house help of actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday after attending a party hosted by director-producer Karan Johar on December 8, has also tested positive for the virus, the BMC said on Wednesday.
So far, the BMC has traced over 110 people who were close contacts of those who attended the party at Johar’s residence in Bandra West.
On Wednesday, the BMC said that test results of 110 people – tested for being in contact with these celebrities – have come negative. Also, besides Johar, actors Malaika Arora and Alia Bhatt, who also attended the party, have tested negative, said an official. Read more
Dr Jacob Lemieux, who monitors variants for a research collaboration led by Harvard Medical School, has flagged the rising cases in the United States, news agency AP reported. "Our Delta surge is ongoing and, in fact, accelerating. And on top of that, we're going to add an Omicron surge," he said, adding, "That's alarming, because our hospitals are already filling up." Staff are fatigued, he said, "leaving limited capacity for a potential crush of Covid-19 cases" from an Omicron wave superimposed on a Delta surge.
Most likely, he and other experts said at a news briefing Tuesday, an Omicron surge is already under way in the US, with the latest mutant coronavirus outpacing the nation's ability to track it. However, the White House on Wednesday insisted there was no need for a lockdown because vaccines are widely available and appear to offer protection against the worst consequences of the virus.
With growing concern over the new variant Omicron, the Centre wrote to the state on Tuesday about a rise in weekly Covid-19 caseload between November 26 and December 9. However, the public health officers attribute it to the surge in daily testing under the surveillance programme of Omicron.
On December 14, Arti Ahuja, additional secretary, wrote to Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary, that out of the 36 districts in the state, 19 of them reported a rise in the weekly caseload between December 3 and 9, compared to the previous one week, November 26 to December 2.
It was also highlighted that Mumbai has been the major contributor in the new cases. Read more
The omicron variant is offering more hints about what it may have in store as it spreads around the globe: A highly transmissible virus that may cause less severe disease, and one that can be slowed — but not stopped — by today’s vaccines.
An analysis Tuesday of data from South Africa, where the new variant is driving a surge in infections, suggests the Pfizer vaccine offers less defense against infection from omicron and reduced, but still good, protection from hospitalization.
The findings are preliminary and have not been peer-reviewed — the gold standard in scientific research — but they line up with other early data about omicron’s behavior, including that it seems to be more easily spread from person to person. Read more
Top officials of the state Health Department have directed district teams to contact those eligible for the vaccine either through call centres or home visits, and remind them to take the second dose of either the Covishield or Covaxin vaccine.
Across Maharashtra, there are still a total of 89.46 lakh beneficiaries who have to take the second dose of Covishield and 12.23 lakh who require the second dose of Covaxin.
Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary of health Maharashtra, ruled out vaccine hesitancy and admitted that it was partly true that there was a rise in vaccination numbers as several countries have started reporting the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Read more
A 47-year-old man who had arrived from Nigeria has tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, marking the first such case being reported in Tamil Nadu, according to the State Minister Ma Subramanian.
The passenger who arrived here from Nigeria via Doha on December 10 had tested Covid-19 positive and six of his family members too had tested positive for the virus, the Minister for Medical and Family Welfare said. “In the initial level of testing of their sampling, there was S-gene drop raising the suspicion of being infected by Omicron. Now, we have the received the results sent from the National Institute of Virology. The passenger has tested positive for Omicron,” Subramanian told reporters. Read more
India on Thursday reported a daily positivity rate of 0.57%. According to the Health Ministry, the daily positivity rate has been less than 2% for the last 73 days.
The weekly positivity rate stood at 0.64. Additionally, the active cases currently account for 0.25% of total cases, the Ministry said.
India on Thursday recorded 7,974 Covid-19 cases and 343 deaths. With 7,948 recoveries, the active cases in the country stood at 87,245. Kerala reported the highest number of fatalities with 282 deaths, of which 125 were recorded on December 15 and the rest have been added as per a government order revising the criteria for death due to Covid.
Two foreign nationals who arrived here from abroad have tested positive for the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, a health official said on Wednesday. However, both are asymptomatic. (PTI)
West Bengal on Wednesday reported its first Omicron case after a seven-year-old boy, resident of Murshidabad district, tested positive for the new coronavirus variant, news agency PTI reported citing a senior official of the health department. The boy, the official said, recently returned to Bengal from Abu Dhabi via Hyderabad.
How the world would be grateful if new variants would choose their future victims more responsibly. Here's an open letter to COVID-19.
West Bengal reported its first case of Omicron Wednesday as a seven-year-old boy tested positive for the variant of the coronavirus in Kolkata.
The child, a resident of Murshidabad, had come to Kolkata via Hyderabad from Abu Dhabi a few days ago with his parents. Both parents have tested negative. The boy is undergoing treatment at a local hospital in Murshidabad district. More details here.
Alphabet Inc’s Google told its employees they would lose pay and eventually be fired if they do not follow its Covid-19 vaccination rules, CNBC reported on Tuesday, citing internal documents.
A memo circulated by Google’s leadership said employees had until December 3 to declare their vaccination status and upload documentation showing proof, or to apply for a medical or religious exemption, according to the report.
After that date, Google said it would start contacting employees who had not uploaded their status or were unvaccinated and those whose exemption requests were not approved, CNBC reported. (Read more)
California is exempting San Francisco from a rule that takes effect Wednesday requiring all people to wear masks indoors in a bid to contain a troubling rise in new coronavirus cases.
San Francisco will continue to allow fully vaccinated people to remove their masks in gyms and workplaces while its overall masking mandate remains in effect, the city Department of Public Health announced. (AP)
The omicron variant is offering more hints about what it may have in store as it spreads around the globe: A highly transmissible virus that may cause less severe disease, and one that can be slowed — but not stopped — by today’s vaccines.
An analysis Tuesday of data from South Africa, where the new variant is driving a surge in infections, suggests the Pfizer vaccine offers less defense against infection from omicron and reduced, but still good, protection from hospitalization.
The findings are preliminary and have not been peer-reviewed — the gold standard in scientific research — but they line up with other early data about omicron’s behavior, including that it seems to be more easily spread from person to person. (Read more)
Researchers in Hong Kong have urged people to get a third dose of Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible, after a study showed insufficient antibodies were generated by the Sinovac and BioNTech products to fend off Omicron.
Tuesday's release of the results of a study by scientists in the microbiology department of the University of Hong Kong was the first published preliminary data on the impact of Sinovac's vaccine against the Omicron variant of coronavirus. None of the serum of the 25 Coronavac vaccine recipients contained sufficient antibodies to neutralise the new variant, according to the study, accepted for publication in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the researchers said. (Reuters)
India logged 6,984 coronavirus infections, taking the total tally of Covid-19 cases to 3,47,10,628 while the active cases declined to 87,562, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.
The death toll climbed to 4,76,135 with 247 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 15,000 for the last 48 days now.
The active cases comprise 0.25 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.38 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said. (PTI)
The US death toll from Covid-19 topped 8,00,000 on Tuesday, a once-unimaginable figure seen as doubly tragic, given that more than 2,00,000 of those lives were lost after the vaccine became available practically for the asking last spring.
The number of deaths, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Atlanta and St. Louis combined, or Minneapolis and Cleveland put together. It is roughly equivalent to how many Americans die each year from heart disease or stroke. (Read more)
From the outside, the building in an industrial district of Cape Town looks like any other nondescript warehouse. In fact, it is a beacon of hope for the biotech industry and vaccine production of the entire African continent.
Inside, preparations are ongoing for future mRNA vaccine production. The Covax initiative for the development of COVID-19 vaccines called on manufacturers to apply for the establishment of an mRNA hub for low- and middle-income countries — and Afrigen Biologics prevailed against about 60 competitors.
The European Union, the World Health Organization and several countries are funding the project. (Read more)
Pfizer said Tuesday that its experimental pill to treat Covid-19 appears effective against the omicron variant.
The company also said full results of its 2,250-person study confirmed the pill's promising early results against the virus: The drug reduced combined hospitalisations and deaths by about 89% among high-risk adults when taken shortly after initial Covid-19 symptoms.
Separate laboratory testing shows the drug retains its potency against the omicron variant, the company announced, as many experts had predicted. Pfizer tested the antiviral drug against a man-made version of a key protein that omicron uses to reproduce itself. (AP)
South Korea reported 7,850 new coronavirus cases for Tuesday, its highest daily total, as breakthrough infections among those already vaccinated continue to spike, with the number of patients in serious condition also reaching a fresh high at 964.
Daily tallies of infections shot past 7,000 for the first time last week, just days after passing the 5,000 mark, putting ever greater strains on the country's medical capacity. Total infections in the pandemic so far have risen to 536,495, including 128 cases of the Omicron variant, with 4,456 deaths, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. (Reuters)
Cambodia has detected the country's first case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a local woman who had travelled from Ghana, the ministry of health said.
The 23-year old woman had returned from Ghana via Dubai and Bangkok, the ministry said in a statement issued on Tuesday.The woman, who was 15 weeks pregnant, had been admitted to hospital for treatment, it said. (Reuters)