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Coronavirus Omicron Variant Highlights: As the COVID-19 cases are showing a sustained downward trend across the country, the Centre has asked states and union territories to review, amend or do away with additional COVID-19 restrictions. The central government has asked to do so after considering the trend of new cases and positivity rate in their regions, stating a sustained downward trend in the nationwide case trajectory. India has recorded 25,920 new COVID-19 cases in the 24-hour period, according to the data released by the Union health ministry on February 17. With this, the tally of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country has reached 4,27,80,235. Active coronavirus cases stand at 2,92,092 in the country. The death toll has climbed to 5,10,905 with 492 daily fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 174.64 crore, according to the health ministry. Of these, more than 37.86 lakh doses were administered in the last 24 hours, the ministry said.
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Andhra Pradesh reported 495 fresh cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours ending 9 AM on Friday. According to the latest bulletin, 1,543 infected persons got cured and one died.There were 23,15,525 positive cases, 22,92,396 recoveries and 14,708 deaths till date. The active caseload decreased to 8,421, the bulletin added.East Godavari district reported 106, West Godavari 99, Krishna 77 and Visakhapatnam 55 fresh cases. Four districts registered between 15 and 40 each and the remaining five less than 10 fresh cases each.Chittoor district reported the one death.
India will be better off easing COVID restrictions rather than completely obliterating them, public health experts said.They feel the countryshould continue measuressuch as wearing masks, social distancing and ensuring proper ventilation in public spaces at least for the next couple of months, The Economic Times reported.This comes after the health ministry on February 16 directed states to remove additional restrictions imposed during the third wave in view of sliding COVID cases.
Meghalaya on Friday recorded 55 fresh COVID-19 cases, 13 more than the previous day, pushing the tally to 93,228, a health department official said. The death toll due to the contagion also mounted to 1,566 after one more patient succumbed to the virus, Health Services Director Aman War said.The northeastern state now has 473 active cases, while 91,189 people have recovered from the disease so far, he said. Of the new cases, East Khasi Hills district reported (21) followed by West Garo Hills (12) and West Jaintia Hills (5).
India has vaccinated 80% of its eligible adult population against COVID with both doses: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya (ANI)
Kerala on February 18 registered 7,780 new COVID-19 cases, 18 deaths and 21,134 recoveries today. Theactive cases stand at 85,875, death toll 63,529.
Germany has crossed over the peak of new daily infections with the omicron variant of COVID-19, the country's health minister said on Thursday. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said government measures to curb infection numbers have been effective, but he warned against relaxing the public health rules too hastily. “We are not really in safe waters,” he told reporters in Berlin. Lauterbach, an epidemiologist by training, noted that as many as 12% of people over age 60 in Germany are still unvaccinated. That share is three to four times higher than that of unvaccinated, vulnerable population groups in comparable countries. Germany has been slower than many of its neighbours to relax pandemic restrictions.
The World Health Organization said on Friday six African countries - Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia - would be the first on the continent to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines. The technology transfer project, launched last year in Cape Town, aims to help low- and middle-income countries manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards. mRNA is the advanced technology used by companies such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for their COVID-19 shots. The WHO established its global mRNA technology transfer hub after vaccine hoarding by wealthy countries and by companies that prioritised sales to governments that could pay the highest price. This pushed low- and middle-income countries to the back of the queue for COVID-19 vaccines. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the COVID pandemic had demonstrated more than any other event how reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods was both limiting and dangerous. "In the mid- to long-term, the best way to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage is to significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture the health products they need," he said in a statement.
The BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant is not only faster at spreading, but may also cause more severe disease, a lab study suggests. The yet-to-be peer-reviewed findings, recently posted on the preprint repository BioRxiv, show that the BA.2 sub variant may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older coronavirus variants.On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said while BA.2 is more tranmsissible than BA.1, the subvariant is not more severe. "Among all subvariants, BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1. However, there is no difference in terms of severity," Maria Van Kerkhova, COVID-19 Technical Lead at WHO said in a video.In the latest study, a Japanese team led by researchers from the University of Tokyo found that similar to BA.1, BA.2 subvariant of Omicron appears to largely escape the immunity induced by COVID-19 vaccines. "Neutralisation experiments show that the vaccine-induced humoral immunity fails to function against BA.2 like BA.1," the authors of the study said.
Hong Kong'sFungShingRestaurant was bustling this week as customers came for one last taste of the traditional Cantonese dim sum that has made it famous.
The All India Parents' Association (AIPA) has written to Delhi Lieutenant GovernorAnilBaijaldemanding that vaccinationcentresrunning in government schools be shifted to other places and teachers posted onCovidduty be called back. The letter comes following the reduction in coronavirus cases as well as reopening of schools in the national capital after prolonged closure."Now that students have started returning to school, vaccinationcentresrunning in government schools should be shifted to other places. Also, teachers posted onCovidduties should be called back since the number of cases have gone down considerably,"AIPApresidentAshokAgarwalsaid in the letter. It is important to provide a safe and secure environment to students where they can concentrate on studies as "there has already been a significant learning loss due to theCovid-inducedschool closure", he said.
Amid declining coronavirus cases in the city, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) decided to reopen higher education institutions and coachingcentresalong with schools for classes 9-12 from February 7. It also decided to reopen schools for students from nursery to class 8 from February 14. Delhi on Thursday reported 739new COVID-19 cases and five more deaths, while the positivity rate stood at 1.48 per cent, according to the city health department.
