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Coronavirus Omicron India Highlights: India logged 3,06,064 fresh coronavirus cases taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,95,43,328, while the active cases climbed to 22,49,335, the highest in 241 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.
The death toll has climbed to 4,89,848 with 439 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 5.69 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate decreased to 93.07 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 62,130 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
More than 162.73 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far; over 13.83 crore balance & unutilized vaccine doses are still available with States/UTs to be administered, the Union Health Ministry said.
According to a preliminary analysis by IIT Madras, India’s R-value which indicates the rate of spread of coronavirus has further reduced to 1.57 in the week from January 14-21 and the national peak of the third wave of the infection is expected to come in the next fortnight.
R-value indicates the number of people an infected person can spread the disease to. A pandemic is considered to end if this value goes below 1.
According to the analysis shared by IIT Madras, the R-value was recorded at 1.57 between January 14 and January 21. The number was recorded at 2.2 in the week of January 7-13 while it was 4 from January 1-6 and 2.9 from December.
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Fully vaccinatedtravellersentering England will soon be exempt from anyCOVIDtest requirements, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed on Monday.Speaking to reporters during a visit to a hospital in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Johnson said the daily Omicron variant data is getting better and it was time for the country to be more open fortravellers.Read full report.
Authorities in Indore inMadhyaPradesh on Monday said next month's salaries of some 20,000government staffers in the district will be withheld if they don't take the coronavirus vaccine's precaution or booster dose. Frontline staff, health care workers etc will be paid next month's wages only if they take the third shot of the vaccine, and treasury officials have been intimated about the decision, Indore CollectorManishSingh said. (PTI)
The Assam government on Monday issued an order tightening restrictions to contain spread of COVID-19 in the state and banning entry of non-vaccinated people to public places, except hospitals. It also directed authorities to shut schools for up to class 8 students.
The government asked citizens to carry proof of vaccination while going to public places. These restrictions will come into effect from 6 am of January 25, the order said.
Maharashtra on January 24 reported 28,286 new COVID-19 cases and 38 more deaths due to the disease. The state has also detected 86 new cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
The per-day COVID-19 case count has dropped as compared to January 23, when the state had reported 40,805 new coronavirus cases.
The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 162.77 crore on Monday, the Union Health Ministry said. More than 49 lakh (49,52,290) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm, taking the total number of doses to 1,62,77,06,092. (PTI)
The COVID-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh reached 9,04,744 on Monday after the detection of 10,585 new cases, while the toll increased to 10,576 with six patients succumbing to the infection in the last 24 hours, an official said. The positivity rate reduced to 13.0 per cent on Monday from 13.4 per cent on Sunday, he pointed out. (PTI)
The per-day COVID-19 count in Mumbai has dropped to 1,857, around 27 percent lower as compared to 2,550 infections reported a day earlier. The death count increased by 11.
The cumulative positivity rate in the state capital has dropped to 5.41 percent. The city currently has 21,142 active patients.
Amid demands of lifting weekend curfew and odd-even system of opening shops by traders as well as the AAP and the BJP, Delhi’s apex COVID-19 management body DDMA will meet on Thursday to review the pandemic situation in the city. The meeting of Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to be chaired by Lt Governor Anil Baijal is scheduled at 12.30 pm on January 27. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also likely to attend the meeting that will discuss relaxations that may be allowed in view of improvement in COVID-19 situation in the city, officials said.
According to an official source, the government is also likely to take a call on reopening of schools from February depending on vaccination status of students by the end of this month. The Delhi government on Friday had proposed lifting the weekend curfew and ending the odd-even scheme for opening shops in view of the pandemic situation but Lieutenant Governor Baijal suggested maintaining status quo on the restrictions till the situation improved further.
The LG office, however, had approved the government’s proposal to allow private offices to function with 50 per cent staff strength, official sources said.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said the decision to ease the restrictions was taken in view of declining number of Covid cases in the city and also to ensure that livelihood of the public is not affected. "Now since the cases are going down and it also seems that the peak has gone, we want to ensure that the public’s livelihood continues smoothly. We have proposed to do away with weekend curfew and also with the odd-even arrangement of opening of shops in markets," Sisodia had said.
Traders in many parts of the city have also been protesting against the restrictions and demanded the curbs be lifted, including those imposed on shops selling non-essential items being permitted to open on alternate days based on odd-even system. The weekend curfew is implemented at 10 pm on Friday and continues till Monday 5 am. The decision to impose weekend curfew was taken by the DDMA on January 1 due to rise in COVID-19 cases in the city.
The DDMA had also imposed other restrictions including closure of all private offices dealing with non-essential services. A night curfew during weekdays is already in place from 10 pm to 5 am. The number of fresh COVID cases went down to 5,760, according the Health bulletin issued on Monday, from the high of over 28,000 a fortnight ago. The positivity rate also came down to 11.79 per cent. Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta also recently wrote a letter to Baijal requesting him for lifting of weekend curfew and odd-even shop opening scheme besides allowing restaurants and gyms to run with 50 per cent capacity.
Fully vaccinated travellers entering England will soon be exempt from any COVID test requirements, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed on Monday. Speaking to reporters during a visit to a hospital in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Johnson said the daily Omicron variant data is getting better and it was time for the country to be more open for travellers.
Over the weekend, the UK recorded 74,799 cases and 75 COVID deaths. Although we have to be cautious, we are now moving through the Omicron wave, and you can see the figures are starting to get better, Johnson said. Although we have to be cautious, we are now moving through the Omicron wave, and you can see the figures are starting to get better, Johnson said.
Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal tested positive for the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Monday, said a senior doctor of the hospital where he was admitted. The doctor said the five-time chief minister was stable. Dr Rajesh Mahajan, incharge of the team of doctors attending to Badal, said the samples of the 94-year-old Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch was sent to the Patiala lab for testing and he tested positive for the Omicron variant. Badal is having sore throat, slight cough and mild fever but he is stable, Mahajan added. Badal was admitted to Dayanand Medical College and Hospital last week when he tested positive for coronavirus.
Nagaland's COVID-19 tally rose to 33,654 on Monday as 69 people tested positive for the infection, 38 less than the previous day, a health official said. The northeastern state's coronavirus death toll rose to 707 as two more patients succumbed to the infection. No fatality was recorded in the last two days.
Nagaland now has 693 active cases, while 30,919 people have recuperated from the disease so far, including 57 in the last 24 hours, the official said, adding that the recovery rate stood at 91.87 per cent. Altogether 1,335 patients have migrated to other states to date. A total of 13,96,778 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the state so far, the official added.
