Coronavirus Omicron India Highlights | Maharashtra reports 39,207 new cases, 38,824 recoveries, 53 deaths in past 24 hours

Israel will continue to offer a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot despite preliminary findings that it is not enough to prevent Omicron infections, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, predicting contagions stoked by the variant will wane in a week.

With his government scaling back Omicron counter-measures to ease the strain on the economy, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sought to cast Israel's still-high case numbers primarily as a result of an en-masse testing drive rather than infection rates.

The fastest country to roll out vaccinations a year ago, Israel last month started offering a fourth shot - also known as a second booster - to its most vulnerable and high-risk groups.

A preliminary study published by an Israeli hospital on Monday found that the fourth shot increases antibodies to even higher levels than the third but "probably" not enough to fend off the highly transmissible Omicron.

Booster vaccination drives to be done for frontline workers and health workers. As the testing is high in Karnataka, the cases are high as well. If precautionary measures are taken, the third wave can be managed well in the state: Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai

Assam on Tuesday reported 8,072 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since the onset of the pandemic, pushing the tally to 6,61,789, Health Minister Keshab Mahanta said. The minister said 16 more fatalities due to the disease were reported on Tuesday, five more than the previous day's figure, taking the death toll to 6,233.

Jammu and Kashmir reports 4,651 new COVID-19 cases -- 1,546 from Jammu and 3,105 from Kashmir in the last 24 hours; Active cases in the UT stand at 21,677.

Maharashtra reports 39,207 new COVID cases, 38,824 recoveries, and 53 deaths today. Active cases: 2,67,659. Today, no new case of Omicron variant is reported in the state.

Nepal on Tuesday registered a record 10,258 fresh cases of COVID-19, the largest single-day rise so far, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.The Kathmandu Valley alone recorded 5,549 cases, it said. As many as 22,828 swab samples were tested. Of them, 8,730 polymerase chain reaction and 1,528 antigen tests turned out to be positive.The ministry said this was the first time when the COVID-19 cases have crossed the 10,000-mark in Nepal. There are currently 39,223 active cases across the country. Among them, 37,826 are in self-isolation, 1,218 in institutional isolation, 151 in ICUs and 28 on ventilators.

Home and Education Minister of Puducherry A Namassivayam said on Tuesday that all schools conducting classes for students of Standards X to XII would remain closed till January 31 as he said coronavirus is spreading in the Union Territory.He told reporters after holding discussions with officials of the Health and Education Departments earlier that colleges also would remain closed till this month-end. He said the government had been holding classes from X to XII and also for students in colleges as the students aged between 15 and 18 years were being vaccinated against the pandemic. “Considering the current situation of the virus, all classes in high and higher secondary schools and also colleges will remain closed,” he said.Already, classes one to IX were cancelled from January 10, he said

Kerala reports 28,481 new COVID-19cases and 7,303 recoveries and 39 deaths. The active cases 1,42,512 83 deaths added as per the new guidelines of the Central government. The total deathtoll stands at51,026, theState Government said.

The third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to peak much earlier than anticipated and may take a maximum of three more weeks, even though the share of rural districts in new caseloads has increased significantly since December, says a report. The optimism comes from the massive decline in new caseloads in the top 15 districts which had the maximum infections, SBI Research said in a report on Tuesday.