Coronavirus Omicron India Highlights | Delhi reports 1,317 new COVID cases, Kerala logs over 23,000

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Possibility of new COVID-19 variants really high, warns WHO

During a question and answer session live streamed on WHO’s social media platforms on Tuesday, the WHO COVID-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove said that the global health agency is tracking four…

Gujarat on Wednesday reported 2,560 fresh coronavirus cases and 24 fatalities due to the infection, raising the tally of infections to 12,08,212 and the death toll to 10,740, the state health department said. A total of 8,812 COVID-19 patients were discharged, taking the total number of recoveries so far to 11,70,117, leaving Gujarat with 27,355 active cases. (PTI)

Karnataka reported 5,339 fresh Covid-19 cases today. Of these, 2,161 infections are from Bengaluru. With today's numbers, the positivity rate fell to 4.14 per cent in the state, and 3.55 per cent in Bengaluru. The state also recorded 48 deaths. (PTI)

Delhi on Wednesday reported 1,317 fresh COVID-19 cases with a positivity rate of 2.11 per cent, while 13 more people succumbed to the viral disease, according to data shared by the city health department.

With this, the national capital’s case count increased to 18,47,515 and the death toll climbed to 26,023, the latest bulletin stated. (PTI)

Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 400 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the highly contagious Omicron variant dominates the outbreak, pushing health systems in several countries to the brink of capacity.

The Omicron variant, which is dominating the surge around the world, accounts for almost all new cases reported daily. While cases have begun to level off in many countries, more than 2 million cases are still being reported on average each day, according to aReuters analysis. Deaths, which tend to lag cases, have increased by 70percentin the last five weeks based on the seven-day average.

While preliminary evidence from several countries have shown that Omicron is milder than previous variants, a large volume of cases can potentially overburden healthcare systems globally.

Describing the new COVID-19 variants as the "wild card", a top World Health Organisation official has warned that the Omicron will not be the last one and the possibility of other new variants is really high.During a question and answer session live streamed on WHO’s social media platforms on Tuesday, the WHO COVID-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove said that the global health agency is tracking four different versions of Omicron.

"We know a lot about this virus, but we don’t know everything. And quite frankly, the variants are the wild card. So we are tracking this virus in real time as it mutates as it changesBut this virus has a lot of room to move,” she said.

Slovenia's conservative Prime Minister Janez Jansa said Wednesday he had tested positive for Covid-19, just as the EU country of two million sees a decline in new infections."For two years we have been successfully avoiding the coronavirus. Yesterday, during a self-test both of my children were positive, I was negative. Today, unfortunately, mine is also + (positive)," Jansa wrote on his Twitter account, posting a photo of his antigen self-test.

Jansa said his symptoms were mild for now and did not specify whether he would undergo a PCR test, which the government no longer requires to confirm an infection under recently changed rules. Jansa took over the government in March 2020 just days after the epidemic in Slovenia was declared.

England will scrap the legal requirement to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19 later this month if infection levels remain stable, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Wednesday.Johnson, dogged by revelations of apparent breaches of the Covid rules at Downing Street that have led to calls for him to quit, had earlier said he aimed to end the self-isolation rules on March 24.But addressing lawmakers before parliament goes into recess on Thursday until February 21, he said he would bring the change forward by a month, to cheers from his fellow Conservative MPs.

Daily COVID-19 cases in Kerala which saw a slight increase a day ago, again decreased with the state on Wednesday recording 23,253 fresh infections which raised the total caseload to 63,46,631. The southern state had reported 29,471 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.Kerala today also reported 854 deaths which raised the total fatalities in Kerala to 60,793, according to a government release. Of the deaths, 29 were reported in the last 24 hours, 198 were those which occurred in the last few days but were not recorded due to late receipt of documents and 627 were designated as COVID-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court, the release said.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi announced on February 9 that it will discontinue routine COVID-19 testing before inpatient hospitalisations and surgeries.

This will be applicable to both regular and daycare hospitalisations, minor and major surgeries/ interventional, non-interventional proceduresandimaging in clinically asymptomatic patients/ including OPD and Emergency patients along with those who were earlier COVID-19 positive but have recovered and been transferred to the inpatient ward for continued treatment, acircular issued by AIIMS Delhi read.

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