COVID-19 News Updates

While 50 per cent of the adult population in India has received two doses of the vaccine, and 84 per cent has received one dose, children are yet to be inoculated in the country.

Initially, three students tested positive and later four more. On Monday, two more tested positive. All of the infected students have been isolated and their primary contacts are also been tracked and quarantined. The infected students will be retested for Covid-19.

According to the State Health Department, more than 800 non-resident Odias (NROs) have already landed in Odisha from several Omicron-hit countries. Out of them, the government does not have information about 320 returnees, which constitutes nearly 40 per cent of the total arrivals.

As Omicron is found to have more than 30 mutations in its spike protein, the main concern over its outbreak is whether disease severity is similar, milder or more severe than with the other variants.

As many as 246 persons out of the total number of travelers who returned to Odisha from other countries after November 24 have tested positive for Covid-19.

The new Covid variant, Omicron has started spreading its tentacles across the country. Several states have beefed up their surveillance and tracing activities. With the looming threat, Odisha health department earlier this morning informed that 40 percent of the travellers who came to the state from 8 ‘at risk countries’ are yet to be traced.

The ILS Director said that compared to the first and second wave, both the Centre and Odisha government have adopted a proactive approach and focus is being given on testing and tracking of the returnees.

The State Health Department said more than 800 non-resident Odias (NROs) have landed in the State from Omicron hit countries. Out of them, the government does not have information about 320 returnees which comprises 40 per cent of the total arrivals.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.94 per cent. It has been less than two per cent for last 63 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 0.78 per cent. It has been below one per cent for the last 22 days, according to the ministry.

The second worst hit country in terms of cases is India ( 34,633,255 infections and 473,326 deaths), followed by Brazil (22,143,091 infections and 615,636 deaths).

Even amid the emergence of new variants like Omircron, vaccination remains one of the strongest pillars of protection against disease and infection, according to experts.

"The study is still in its early stages, but we hope that the discovery will be used in the future to develop an accessible and effective drug, preventing infection with the coronavirus. Our findings at this stage arouse cautious optimism," TAU's Prof. Alexander Golberg added in the study published in PeerJ -- a peer-reviewed science journal.

Three days after emergence of first case of Omicron variant in India, New Delhi reported country’s 5th case of the variant on Sunday.

Following Union Health Secretary’s concerns over ‘rising Covid infection and fatality rate in certain districts of Odisha’, director of State Health Services, Bijay Mohapatra clarified that Odisha is in a much better position as compared to the national trends.

Amid growing concerns over Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19, international travellers arriving at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar as well as Veer Surendra Sai Airport in Jharsuguda are being strictly monitored.