COVID-19 News Updates

All the five new cases of Omicron variant infection were detected following genome sequencing, said Bijay Mohapatra, Director of Health Services (DHS) on Thursday.

Several scientists have criticised the government's decision not to introduce further Covid restrictions in England before New Year's Eve, with some describing it as "the greatest divergence between scientific advice and legislation" since the start of the pandemic.

A spokesperson for Fatehi said the actor tested positive two days ago and has been cooperating with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials.

As per a notification issued by BMC, all religious institutions like temples, mosques, gurudwaras, churches will remain closed for public from December 31, 2021 (tomorrow) to January 2, 2022 within BMC jurisdiction.

Five more persons have tested positive for the Omicron variant of Covid-19 taking the tally of the new variant of the virus to 14 in Odisha, informed the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) on Thursday.

At present, the State has 7.05 lakh healthcare and frontline workers and around 10.47 lakh people above 60 years with co-morbidities, said the top health official.

The Delhi health minister had on Wednesday said many international travellers who tested negative at the airport are found to be Covid positive after a few days. During this period, they are infecting their family members, he said.

Also in the same period, a total of 11,99,252 tests were conducted across the country, increasing the total tally to 67.64 crore.

The other countries with over 5 million cases are the UK (12,628,071), Russia (10,279,009), France (9,639,037), Turkey (9,367,369), Germany (7,101,226), Iran (6,190,762), Spain (6,133,057), Italy (5,854,428), Argentina (5,556,239) and Colombia (5,138,603), the CSSE figures showed.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated his concern over a recent narrative that Omicron has been causing milder or less severe diseases, Xinhua news agency reported.

The recombinant protein sub-unit vaccine developed from the RB) of the spike protein on the viral surface is adjuvanted with Dynavax's CpG 1018 and alum. Comprehensive Phase 3 clinical trials involving more than 3,000 subjects between the ages of 18 and 80 at 33 study sites across India, demonstrated the vaccine to be safe, well tolerated and highly immunogenic.

Mumbai presented a shocker with nearly doubling of new Covid-19 infections - from 1,333 on Tuesday to 2,510 within 24 hours, besides one death and a recovery rate of 97 per cent.

As vaccination gradually picked up pace and its scope was expanded, the government battled controversies surrounding its supply and availability to states and union territories and modifying the vaccine purchase and distribution policies.

Children, who were born before January 1, 2007, are eligible to take the COVID-19 vaccine doses in 15-18 year age group

The warning comes as the new Omicron variant in the US has driven daily Covid-19 new cases to a record high of over 510,000.