Omicron LIVE Updates: Rajasthan logs first death due to Covid variant

In view of rising Omicron cases, the Manipur govt has imposed a night curfew from 9 PM to 4 AM. Music concerts, Thabal chongba, and large gatherings are restricted.

Maharashtra today reported 85 new Omicron cases, along with a 82% spike in daily Covid cases in Mumbai, as city recorded 2,510 new cases. 

Full vaccination certificate or negative COVID certificate not older than 72 hours is required for entry into Dehradun, said District Magistrate R Rajesh Kumar.

Amid rising Covid cases in the country, Punjab on Wednesday reported its first Omicron case. Punjab government on Tuesday imposed fresh restrictions and made COVID vaccine mandatory for all to access public places. 

Rajasthan govt has imposed Covid restrictions and has imposed a night curfew from 11am to 5pm. The restrictions will be imposed from January 3. Cinema halls, theaters, multiplexes will open with 50% capacity, and only persons with both doses will be allowed.

On Wednesday, France recorded more than 2 lakh daily COVID cases in a new record, news agency AFP reported. Meanhwhile, the World Health Organization says the number of COVID-19 cases recorded worldwide increased by 11% last week compared with the previous week, with the biggest increase in the Americas. The gain followed a gradual increase since October.

Goa Govt has announced new restrictions to contain the COVID19 spread. Casinos, cinema halls, auditoriums, river cruises, water parks & entertainment parks will operate at maximum of 50% capacity. Only those who are fully-vaccinated or those possessing negative COVID certificate will get entry into the state.

Mumbai on Wednesday reported 2,510 new Covid cases, 82% higher than yesterday's 1,377 Covid cases.

The national capital on Wednesday reported 923 new Covid 19 cases, 86% higher than yesterday's 496 cases. Apart from this, no deaths were reported, and the positivity rate has climbed to 1.26%.

Gujarat on Wednesday reported 19 new Omicron cases, taking the state's overall case tally to 97. On Tuesday, Gujarat had recorded 5 new cases of the new Omicron Covid variant.

Amid rising Omicron and Covid cases in Maharashtra, Cabinet Minister Aditya Thackeray has said that Mumbai alone may soon cross 2000 cases per day. He has predicted the same for today as well. On Tuesday, Mumbai recorded 1,377 fresh Covid cases, 70?% higher than those recorded on Monday.

Paul Kattuman, professor at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge has predicted an 'explosive growth' in Covid cases in India within a few days. However, he also says that the growth in cases will be 'short-lived'. Kattuman and his team of researchers, developers of the India Covid tracker, are seeing a sharp rise in infection rates across India.

"It is likely that India will see a period of explosive growth in daily cases and that the intense growth phase will be relatively short,", Kattuman has said.

Rajasthan has reported 23 Omicron cases today. The total number of Omicron cases stands at 69.

Omicron infection has been confirmed in a youth who recently returned here from abroad, a senior official said on Wednesday. The 21-year-old, resident of Uska police station area, lives in Britain. When he landed at the Delhi airport on Sunday evening, he had rapid antigen and RT-PCR tests done and was sent home after the antigen test did not confirm the infection but later his RT-PCR report came positive, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr AK Singh said on Wednesday.

Mumbai | Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray, Mayor Kishori Pednekar and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal attended a meeting today to discuss the prevailing COVID19 situation in the city

With the National Institute of Virology confirming 11 more cases of Omicron in Tamil Nadu, thus taking the total number to 45, State Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Wednesday said there was no need to panic as all the cases detected so far are asymptomatic. Moreover, they all had availed two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, he said.

Asserting that the present situation is not alarming, the Minister said the emphasis should be more on COVID-19 appropriate behaviour and people should come forward to get vaccinated to shield themselves from coronavirus and its variants.

A woman tested positive for coronavirus at the Indore airport following which she was prevented from boarding the Air India's Dubai-bound flight on Wednesday, an official said. The 44-year-old Dubai resident has already taken four doses of two different vaccines against COVID-19, the official said.

"As per the standard practice, rapid RT-PCR tests are conducted during the weekly Indore-Dubai flight and as part of it, 89 passengers were tested today. A woman among them was found infected with the coronavirus,” Indore health department's medical officer Dr Priyanka Kourav said.

Delhi's Akshardham Temple closed amid a surge in COVID-19 cases 

Tamil Nadu: AIADMK Coordinator and former deputy CM O Panneerselvam urges CM MK Stalin to take "appropriate action" to curb the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID19 in the state

At least 20 foreign passengers have tested positive for Covid-19 at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru, sources said on Wednesday.

Of the 20 infected, seven came from Paris; five each from London and Frankfurt; and one each from the UAE and Kuwait. The nationality of the last person was yet to be ascertained.

One more foreign returnee has tested positive for Omicron taking the tally of patients infected by the new variant of coronavirus to nine in Odisha, a senior health department official said. Director of Health Service (DHS) Bijay Mohapatra said a 31-year-old man hailing from Keonjhar district had returned from Dubai to Bhubaneswar on December 16. His genome sequencing has given a positive result, the Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, has informed the Health department.

He has been admitted to a private hospital, the DHS said, adding that contact tracing of those who were exposed to him is on. His father and mother have tested negative for the infection and again their samples will be examined.

As the world continues to witness the surge in global COVID-19 cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said the overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains "very high". The weekly epidemiological update by WHO revealed the week of December 20-26 saw the global number of new COVID-19 cases increase by 11 per cent as compared to the previous week.

"Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron has a growth advantage over the Delta with a doubling time of 2-3 days and rapid increases in the incidence of cases is seen in a number of countries, including those where the variant has become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant," WHO update said while citing examples of the UK and the US.

However, a decline in the incidence of cases has now been observed in South Africa, it added.

781 Omicron cases in India so far. 9,195 new COVID19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, active caseload at 77,002

781 Omicron cases in India so far

The Omicron variant of Covid-19 caused more than 50 per cent of infections in the Netherlands over the past week, replacing Delta as the dominant variant, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has announced.

"The faster spread of this Omicron variant will lead to additional infections in the near future, which will also increase the number of hospital admissions," the RIVM said on Tuesday.

The Dutch government therefore imposed a lockdown on December 19, Xinhua news agency reported.

With the country reporting more than 650 cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19 so far, the staff members from the education department in Jammu and Kashmir will be redeployed to the COVID duties in all districts of the Union Territory.

According to the order released by the UT administration on Tuesday, a detailed review meeting regarding the current COVID-19 situation was held in Jammu by the Chief Secretary (Chairman SEC) J-K with the ACS (Finance), Principal Secretary(Home) and other high officials of Jammu and Kashmir on December 18 and 24, wherein it was decided that there is a need to continue and further strengthen the existing COVID-19 containment measures in all districts in view of newly discovered variant B.1.1.529 (Omicron).

US government figures show that the omicron variant continues to account for a growing proportion of new coronavirus infections in the country.

Omicron accounted for 59 per cent of new cases in the U.S. for the week ending Dec. 25, according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That's up from 23 per cent the previous week.

A total of 75 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus have been detected in Pakistan, the health authorities said on Tuesday, urging the people to get vaccinated.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) said a maximum of 33 Omicron cases were found in Karachi, where the first Omicron-infected patient was detected on December 13.

"As of December 27, a total of 75 Omicron cases have been confirmed; 33 in Karachi, 17 in Islamabad and 13 in Lahore," the NIH said in a statement, adding that the remaining 12 cases were associated with international travel.

The patients are out in isolation and the authorities have started tracing those who came in contact with them.

The Congress on Tuesday demanded the cancellation of Vibrant Gujarat 2022 Summit to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 10 in view of the rise in COVID-19 cases and the Omicron scare.

The opposition party in the state asked if delegations coming from foreign countries to participate in the summit will be quarantined for a week as per Central government rules in place to curb the pandemic.

California became the first state to record more than 5 million known coronavirus infections, according to the state dashboard on Tuesday, which was delayed by the holiday weekend.

The grim milestone, as reported by the California Department of Public Health, wasn't entirely unexpected in a state with 40 million residents poised for a surge in new infections amid holiday parties and family gatherings forced indoors by a series of winter storms.

The first coronavirus case in California was confirmed Jan. 25, 2020.

It took 292 days to get to 1 million infections on Nov.11 of that year, and 44 days from then to top 2 million.

The Texas Children's Hospital (TCH) and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) announced on Tuesday that Corbevax, a protein subunit Covid vaccine, has received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to launch it in India.

The initial construct and production process of the vaccine antigen was developed at TCH's Centre for Vaccine Development, led by co-directors Maria Elena Bottazzi and Peter Hotez.

Singapore is one of the earliest countries to accept that Omicron is not threatening nationally, because a large proportion of the population is vaccinated, said Professor Dale Fisher, senior consultant at the National University Hospital's Division of Infectious Diseases.

"Singapore is realising the strategy of Covid resilience, such that as new variants arise, they can be dealt with quite easily," The Straits Times said quoting Fisher in an assessment of the latest variant from a number of health experts here.

Some countries are seeing overwhelmed hospitals again because Omicron is more transmissible and the baseline immunity of the population is still low, Fisher said.