India's active caseload is presently at 82,267, lowest in 572 days. Active cases constitute 0.24 per cent of the country's total positive cases, which is the lowest since March 2020.
US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 50,846,828 and 806,439, according to the CSSE.
The announcement came after the European Commission announced on Thursday that Moderna had agreed to accelerate the delivery of its mRNA vaccine to EU countries.
According to central and state officials, omicron cases have been detected in 11 states and union territories -- Maharashtra (54), Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17) and Karnataka (14), Telangana (20), Gujarat (11), Kerala (11), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1).
The genome sequencing reports of four out of the seven Covid positive foreign returnees have come out negative for Omicron.
In a major development, State Health Services Director Bijay Mohapatra informed that severity of disease after the Omicron infection is very low.
Vaccines help teach the body how to fight Covid. But the current ones in use were not designed to combat the heavily-mutated Omicron variant, meaning they are not a perfect match.
The recovery rate, which currently stands at 98.38 per cent, is the highest since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.
US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 50,772,786 and 806,265, according to the CSSE.
The Odisha Health Services Director, Bijay Mohapatra on Saturday (Dec 18) said that the new variant of Covid-19, called ‘Omicron’ is highly transmissible in nature. However, Mohapatra also informed that no data has emerged till date regarding the efficacy of vaccines or the mortality rate of the new variant.
Amidst the threat of the new Covid-19 variant ‘Omicron’, the Odisha Public Health Director, Niranjan Mishra on Saturday (Dec 18), warned regarding the definite possibility of a third wave in the state.
Allying fears that followed the rumours about the infected returnee, Public Health Director, Niranjan Mishra said, "We have no evidence related to this, but the district administration has been asked to submit details."
According to the global health body, the hyper mutant variant has spread to 77 countries so far.
India's active caseload is 84,565, the lowest in 569 days.
Closing of schools across the world should be the last resort in the fight against the fast-spreading Omicron Covid-19 variant, outgoing Unicef Executive Director Henrietta Fore said.
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