Coronavirus Omicron Highlights | Mumbai, Delhi log over 20,000 cases; fresh curbs in Maharashtra

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Rapidly rising COVID-19 cases across the country may force the BCCI to reduce the number of venues for the upcoming white-ball series against the West Indies but the cricket body has not yet formally discussed options. The third wave of coronavirus is fast gripping the country and several states have introduced curbs, including weekend lockdowns, to prevent the spread of infection.

India will host West Indies for six white-ball games -- three ODIs and as many T20Is -- at six venues, starting with the first 50-over match at Ahmedabad on February 6. "Nothing has been decided as of now. This is a fluid situation and we are keeping an eye on the situation, and we will take a call at appropriate time," a senior BCCI official told PTI.

PTI

Tamil Naduon January 8 reported10,978 new COVID-19 cases, along with 10 deaths in the past 24 hours. The state's tally of recoveries increased by 1,525 during the same period. The active caseload stood at 40,260.

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Mumbai reported 20,318 new COVID-19 cases on January 8, marginally lower than yesterday when the city had logged 20,971 fresh infections.The death count increased by five in the preceding 24 hours.

Delhi on January 8 reported 20,181 new COVID-19 cases, at a positivity rate of 19.60 percent. Seven deaths were recorded in the same period. The daily case count in the national capital has been rising steadily over the past two weeks. The Arvind Kejriwal-led government has imposed a 'yellow alert', which has led to the closure of schools and regulation of working hours of non-essential businesses, in a bid to reduce the disease's spread.

Despite a rise in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, the need for hospitalization and oxygen support was low, state health minister Rajesh Tope said inJalnaon Saturday. He said the state task force and health department had given their assessment of the COVID-19 situation to Chief MinisterUddhavThackeray who will decide on the extent of restrictions etc. (PTI)

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Voters who test positive for COVID-19 may submit their votes through postal ballot, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said on January 8. The polling body is addressing a press conference to announce the dates for the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur. Track updates here.

Announcing new restrictions, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the night curfew timing has been advanced to 10 pm from 11:30 pm now and it will continue till 6 am, besides the wearing of masks has been made compulsory.
"All schools in Assam up to class 5 will be closed from tomorrow and this will be up to class 8 in Guwahati till January 30. The rest of the classes will take place on a rotational basis on every alternate day," he added.
Sarma also said that except for hospitals, only fully vaccinated people will be allowed in public places like hotels, restaurants, cinema halls, government offices, schools, colleges, buses and malls.
"We will be very strict on this. If we find any non-vaccinated or partially vaccinated people in any of these places, there will be a fine of Rs 25,000 on the owner of the establishment. It'll be a kind of curfew for the people who are not fully vaccinated.
"For the government employees, if they are not fully vaccinated by January 15, they will not be allowed to come to the office and their salaries will be deducted on a daily basis," he said.
People travelling in two-wheelers and four-wheelers have to be double-vaccinated, Sarma said.
The chief minister said that the government is giving thrust on vaccination more as "there is no strategy to control Omicron" and the best way is to minimise the impact of an infected person.
"So far, 3.85 crore vaccine doses have been administered. As per our calculations, around 55 lakh people have not taken the second dose of the vaccine," he added.
In case of marriage ceremonies and meetings, only 200 people or 50 per cent of the capacity of the venue, whichever is less, will be allowed, while up to 60 fully vaccinated people per hour for iconic religious places and 40 fully vaccinated persons per hour for other religious places are allowed.
For all the inbound travellers in airports and railway stations, COVID-19 testing will be mandatory if the person is not fully vaccinated and samples will be taken from children below 15 years also as the Omicron is infecting the younger generation significantly, the CM said.
"However, the double vaccinated people will have to do a test at their homes on the next day and inform us of the report if it is positive. Then on the seventh day, if there is no hospitalisation, we will consider them as negative even if they do not test again," Sarma said.
Talking about the booster dose, Sarma said it will start from January 10 for frontline workers like healthcare and police personnel, and senior citizens who had taken their second dose nine months ago. (PTI)

The COVID-19 surge in Jharkhand continues, with the state recording 3,825 new cases on Friday, up from 3,704 infections reported on the previous day, pushing the caseload to 3,69,047, a health department bulletin said. The cumulative toll rose to 5,161 with eight deaths reported during the last 24 hours. (PTI)

Sixty-four new cases take Meghalaya's COVID tally to 85,085
Meghalaya on Friday reported 64 new COVID-19 cases, 26 less than the previous day, with the tally rising to 85,085, a health department official said. The death toll remained at 1,485 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported, , Health Services Director Dr Aman War said. Fourteen more people were cured of the disease during the day, taking the total number of recoveries to 83,338. Meghalaya now has 262 active cases. Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said no fresh case of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus was reported in the state. Over 21.36 lakh people have been inoculated with 8,92,384 of them having received both doses of vaccines, War said. (PTI)

Assam facing third Covid wave; daily fresh cases crosses 1,000-mark after 5 months
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said the third wave of the pandemic along with Omicron variant of Covid-19 has hit the state from January 1 and that the government will treat all fresh coronavirus cases to be of the highly infectious new variant. The state government also reported that the number of Covid-19 cases in Assam on Friday crossed 1,000 mark for the first time in five months with detection of 1,167 new cases. Addressing a press conference here, Sarma said that the doubling rate of cases is two days and on some occasions, it's even a single day. "So, we assume that there are lots of Omicron cases in Assam at this moment. We have now decided to consider all positive cases as Omicron and will treat them accordingly," he said.
At least seven more people, including a foreign returnee, have tested positive for Omicron variant of coronavirus in Assam, taking the tally of the new strain to nine, an official said on Friday. On Friday, the total number of cases increased by over 38 per cent over 844 patients detected on Thursday, the National Health Mission (NHM) Media Bulletin said.
Sarma said that the number of cases in Assam started rising from December 27 and the third wave with Omicron as the dominant variant has hit the state from January 1, while it is estimated that the peak of the second wave (6,573 cases in a day) will be touched by January 20. "By the end of January, we will reach the peak of the third wave. This will be much higher than the second wave's peak, say 10,000 or 12,000 or maybe even more. So, we've decided to ramp up our testing significantly to trace contacts," he added. (PTI)

Pondy sees big jump in daily COVID-19 cases, test positivity rate rises
Puducherry witnessed a big jump in the number of fresh coronavirus cases with 280 infections being reported during the last 24 hours ending 10 a.m. on Saturday pushing up the overall tally to 1,30,278. A 57 year old man hailing from neighbouring Villianoor succumbed to the virus, raising the toll to 1882. Director of Health G Sriramulu said the active cases were 825 with 96 patients being in hospitals taking treatment and the remaining 729 patients in home isolation. The Director said 16 patients recovered and were discharged during last twenty-four hours while overall recoveries stood at 1,27,571. (PTI)

Odisha logs 3,679 fresh COVID-19 cases, highest since June 18
Odisha registered 3,679 fresh COVID-19 cases, a 36 percent rise over the previous day and the biggest single-day spike in more than six months, the Health Department said on Saturday. The coastal state's coronavirus tally stood at 10.66 lakh. The daily test positivity rate rose to 5.15 per cent from 3.92 per cent on Friday., it said, adding, the new infections include 384 children. The death toll stood at 8,468 as no fresh fatality was reported in the past 24 hours. Fifty-three other Covid patients have died due to comorbidities so far, officials said.
Odisha now has 11,663 active cases, a steep climb from 8,237 a day earlier, while 10.46 lakh patients have recovered from the disease thus far, the bulletin said. A total of 71,432 samples have been tested for COVID-19 since Friday, it added. More than 2.99 crore people have been inoculated in the state so far. (PTI)