Omicron Variant

Addressing a press conference, the minister said the government was fully prepared to handle the Covid situation.

Omicron XBB.1.5: All you need to know about this highly-contagious Covid variant

XBB.1.5, one of the recent descendants of the highly-contagious Omicron, is spreading in the US. According to WHO, it’s the most transmissible version of Covid yet. Here’s all we know about it

Don't worry, get a Covid vaccine booster shot

According to health ministry officials, the virus usually hits India about 30-35 days after it appears in East Asia. So the countdown has started. BF.7 could appear at our doorsteps in January.

COVID-19: States asked to remain alert, create awareness about masks, sanitisers, says Mansukh Mandaviya

States have also been asked to increase the whole genome sequencing of all positive cases so that new variants, if any, can be detected in time, the health minister told Parliament

Maharashtra: 36 cases of XBB subvariant of Omicron found so far; experts worry about 'long COVID'

Pune district has reported 21 XBB cases to date, followed by 10 in Thane, two in Nagpur and one each in Akola, Amravati and Raigad.

Taiwan to end COVID-19 quarantine for arrivals, welcome back tourists

Taiwan has reported 6.3 million domestic cases since the beginning of the year, driven by the more infectious Omicron variant. With more than 99% of those showing no or only mild symptoms, the government has relaxed restrictions in its "new Taiwan model".

Fresh COVID wave sweeps Asia; New Zealand warns of pressure on hospitals

The renewed surge in cases, mostly of the BA.4/5 Omicron variants, provides a further challenge for authorities grappling with the economic fallout of earlier waves of the pandemic while trying to avoid extending or reintroducing unpopular restrictions.

COVID-19: NRI on Gujarat visit tests positive for Omicron sub-variant BA.5

The man, who lives in South Africa, had on May 1 tested positive for the coronavirus after he arrived to meet his parents.

Natural immunity from Omicron infection weak, limited, study finds

In experiments using mice and blood samples from donors who were infected with Omicron, researchers at Gladstone Institutes and University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in the US found that the Omicron variant induces only a weak immune response.

Hong Kong Q1 GDP down 4% after deadly Omicron surge

Gross domestic product for the first quarter of 2022 contracted by 4 percent from a year earlier, according to advance government figures released on Tuesday.

Beijing begins 3-day COVID-19 mass testing of 3.5 million people as Shanghai report 51 deaths, highest in a day

Beijing’s local government has ordered Chaoyang district, home to some 3.5 million residents, to have three rounds of mass nucleic acid testing starting from Monday after the district registered the most COVID-19 cases in the capital’s latest epidemic surge, official media reported.

Delhi: Omicron found in 97% samples taken from deceased patients from January to March

Genome sequencing of 578 samples collected from the deceased showed 560 of them had the Omicron variant.

Worldwide COVID cases surpass 500 million as Omicron variant BA.2 surges

The rise of BA.2 has been blamed for recent surges in China as well as record infections in Europe. It has been called the "stealth variant" because it is slightly harder to track than others.

COVID-19 | All you need to know about the Deltacron variant

Deltacron, the new variant of coronavirus is a hybrid of Delta and Omicron i.e. it contains the elements of both variants.

Reinfection with different subtypes of Omicron possible, study finds

With the surge of Omicron subvariants BA.1 and BA.2, a large number of reinfections from earlier cases have been observed, the researchers said.

COVID-19 update | South Korea, a virus success story, is forced to alter its approach

I​n the past week, South Korea has begun asking patients who test positive to simply look after themselves at home, while​ the country redirects resources to those who are most vulnerable.

Omicron subvariant BA.2 may cause severe disease, 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.

COVID cases surpass 400 million as Omicron grips world

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 a Reuters analysis. Deaths, which tend to lag cases, have increased by 70 percent in the last five weeks based on the seven-day average.

Assembly Election 2022 | Political rallies continue despite COVID-19 curbs

The coronavirus is still spreading rapidly through India, prompting anxiety as the elections attract millions to polling booths. Balloting will take place in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. The polls end on March 7 and results are to be declared on March 10.

COVID-19 update | Over 166.59 crore vaccine doses administered in India so far, says govt

Cumulatively, 54,11,58,635 first doses have been administered to people in the 18-44 age group and 40,58,44,481 have got the second dose in the same group since the start of phase three of the vaccination drive, according to Health Ministry data.

COVID-19 update | Maharashtra sees 15,140 new cases, 39 fatalities; 35,453 recover

The latest additions pushed the overall caseload to 77,21,109 and the death toll to 1,42,611, it said.

COVID-19 update | Mumbai logs less than 1,000 cases; positivity rate at 2.1%, active tally below 10,000

With this, the tally of coronavirus infections in the city rose to 10,46,590, while the death toll increased to 16,623, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a bulletin.

COVID-19 update | UK expands vaccines to at-risk 5 to 11-year-old kids

NHS England said nearly 500,000 eligible children in England are set to receive their first dose of a COVID vaccine in line with advice set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Omicron subtype BA.2 has apparent transmission advantage: UKHSA

UKHSA said that there was an increased growth rate of BA.2 compared with BA.1 in all regions of England where there were enough cases to compare them, and that "the apparent growth advantage is currently substantial".