Covid news highlights: How COVID-19 can disturb your sleep and dreams and what could help

-- China is seeking to minimise the possibility of a major new COVID-19 outbreak during this month's Lunar New Year travel rush following the end of most pandemic containment measures.

-- The Transportation Ministry on Friday called on travellers to reduce trips and gatherings, particularly if they involve elderly people, pregnant women, small children and those with underlying conditions.

-- People using public transport are also urged to wear masks and pay special attention to their health and personal hygiene, Vice Minister Xu Chengguang told reporters at a briefing.

A 38-year-old woman who arrived in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh from Australia has tested positive for coronavirus, a health official said on Friday.

The woman, who had come here with her husband and two children after landing in Mumbai on December 23, was detected with the infection on Thursday, Joint Director (Health) Dr Sanjay Mishra told PTI.

"Her samples have been sent for genome sequencing to find out the variant. The report of her husband has returned negative. Samples of her two children and in-laws have been sent for COVID-19 tests," Dr Mishra said.

-- Maharashtra on Friday recorded 32 new COVID-19 cases that raised the tally of infections to 81,36,780, an official from the state health department said.

-- The toll stood at 1,48,418 after one casualty was reported in the last 24 hours, while the count of recoveries reached 79,88,228 as 30 patients recovered from the infection, he said.

-- With 12,916 swab samples tested in the last 24 hours, the total number of tests conducted in the state rose to 8,60,00,577.

--- As per the health department report, Pune and Mumbai circles logged 11 cases each, followed by Nashik circle with six, Nagpur with two and one case each from Latur and Aurangabad.

-- Chinese health authorities publish a daily count of new cases, severe cases, and deaths, but those numbers include only officially confirmed cases and use a very narrow definition of COVID-related deaths.

-- China is most certainly doing their own sampling studies but just not sharing them, said Ray Yip, who founded the U.S. Centers for Disease Control office in China.

-- The nationwide tally for Thursday was 9,548 new cases and five deaths, but some local governments are releasing much higher estimates just for their jurisdictions. Zhejiang, a province on the east coast, said Tuesday it was seeing about 1 million new cases a day.

-- COVID-19 can trigger stronger inflammatory responses in males, resulting in changes to their functional immunity long after recovery, a study has found.

-- Scientists have long believed that the immune system reverts to the previous stable level after viral infection. However, the latest study published in the journal Nature, shows that it depends on the individual's sex.

-- A review of all the currently available scientific literature, estimates that 52% of people who contract COVID suffer from sleep disturbances during the infection. The most common type of sleep disturbance reported is insomnia.

-- Sleep problems sometimes persist even after recovery from the infection. A study in China found that 26% of people who were admitted to hospital with COVID showed symptoms of insomnia two weeks after discharge.

-- And a US study showed that people who had been infected with COVID were more likely than people who had never been infected to have trouble sleeping, even up to a month after a positive COVID test.

-- People suffering from long COVID seem very likely to face persistent sleep problems. Participants with long COVID slept less overall and got less deep sleep than participants who had never had COVID.

“People who received an Omicron booster were more than 18 times less likely to die from Covid and 3 times less likely to be infected compared to unvaccinated people, according to the latest CDC data.”

Under the leadership of PM Modi, through the 'Vaccine Maitri' Programme, India supplied COVID-19 vaccine to over 100 nations, with 48 nations receiving the same, free of cost.

“It takes years for a vaccine to be developed, but in the challenging times of COVID-19, it was April 2020, when Prime Minister NarendraModi set up a task-force, provided adequate funding, and helped develop the COVID-19 vaccine in the record-short time.”

-- Fifty to 70 percent "children" below 19 years globally were susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 infection by the end of 2021 and before the Omicron wave, showing a need for more effective vaccines and better vaccination coverage, according to a study.

-- It also found that worldwide seroprevalence estimates varied from 7.3 percent in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to 37.6 percent in the fifth wave and 56.6 percent in the sixth wave.

-- The highest seroprevalences in different pandemic waves were estimated for South-East Asia -- 17.9 to 81.8 percent -- and the African region -- 17.2 to 66.1 percent -- while the lowest seroprevalence was estimated for the Western Pacific region between 0.01 and 1.01 percent, the study said.

-- Seroprevalence estimates were higher in children at older ages, in those living in underprivileged countries or regions, and in those of minority ethnic backgrounds, the study published in eClinicalMedicine said.

-- Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus may negatively impact semen quality, according to a study on 30 males conducted by researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

-- The team led by researchers at AIIMS Patna noted that COVID-19 can lead to multiorgan damage through the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptor (ACE2), abundant in testicular tissue.

-- ACE2 acts as the receptor for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, through which the virus gains entry into the host cells.

-- However, little information is available regarding the shedding of SARS-CoV-2 in semen -- the thick, white fluid that contains sperm -- and its impact on sperm formation and fertility potential.

-228 new coronavirus infections
-Active cases declined to 2,503
-Covid case tally at 4.46 crore (4,46,79,547)
- Death toll at5,30,714, with 4 new fatalities.
-Daily positivity rate at0.11%, weeklypositivity rate0.12%
-National COVID-19 recovery rate at98.80%

-China is seeking to minimize the possibility of a major new COVID-19 outbreak during this month's Lunar New Year travel rush following the end of most pandemic containment measures.

-The Transportation Ministry on Friday called on travelers to reduce trips and gatherings, particularly if they involve elderly people, pregnant women, small children and those with underlying conditions.

-People using public transport are also urged to wear masks and pay special attention to their health and personal hygiene, Vice Minister Xu Chengguang told reporters at a briefing.