Omicron variant: Assam govt tightens Covid restrictions; Maharashtra's fresh cases drop to 28,286

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.

Gujarat continued to report a decline in the number of daily COVID-19 cases with the state seeing 13,805 fresh infections on Monday but coronavirus-related fatalities rose to 25, the highest in the recent past, the health department said. The day before, Gujarat had reported 16,617 COVID-19 cases, the lowest in the five days before Sunday, and 19 fatalities.

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.

Delhi on Monday recorded a nearly 37 per cent decline in daily Covid cases at 5,760, as against 9,197 on Sunday, while there were 30 deaths too. The fresh cases and fatalities have taken the tally to 17,97,471 and the death toll to 25,650 Meanwhile, Delhi's positivity rate has come down to 11.79 per cent with active cases declining to 45,140 as per the Health Department bulletin.

Covid has still got a "long, long way" to go and is "still very serious" despite some optimism the end is in sight in Europe, the World Health Organisation's special envoy on the virus said, Sky News reported. Dr David Nabarro said "it's as though we're just passing the halfway mark on a marathon" and it is still not clear how long it will take to reach the end because of the way coronavirus "challenges and surprises", the report said.

Twenty-one COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant's sub-lineage known as BA.2 have been found in tests conducted over the past 18 days in the laboratory of a private medical institute in Madhya Pradesh's Indore. Those infected with this sub-lineage of Omicron variant include six children, an official from the private facility said on Monday.

People vaccinated three times or immunised after an earlier COVID-19 infection have comparable neutralising antibody response to those with a breakthrough infection, according to a study. A breakthrough infection is a case of illness in which a fully vaccinated individual becomes infected. The study, published in the journal Cell, looked at the strength, durability and breadth of neutralising antibody response generated by breakthrough infections in individuals vaccinated against SARS-CoV2.

Daily COVID-19 cases in India will start to decline after February 15, said official government sources on Monday. "Covid cases in the country to decline after February 15. The cases have started reducing and stabilising in some States and metro cities," sources told ANI.

Days after the Election Commission of India extended the ban on physical rallies and road shows till January 31, District Magistrate South Goa assured that all guidelines are being adhered to and said that as many as 20 people have been booked so far for violation of COVID-19 protocols. These people were involved in election campaigning related activities.

Ruchika Katyal, IAS, Collector and District Magistrate South Goa told ANI, "We know that ECI has relaxed norms and allowed indoor meetings of a maximum 300 people, or 50 per cent capacity of the meeting hall, or limits prescribed by state disaster management authorities."

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany's 16 state governors will confer Monday to chart the country's way forward in the coronavirus pandemic, and are expected to prioritize the use of PCR tests for those most at risk as the omicron variant fuels a steep rise in infections. Germany has seen a string of new infection records over the past two weeks as omicron kicks in. On Monday, the national disease control center said 840.

Odisha reported 7,291 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday, pushing the tally to 12,11,951, while the death toll mounted to 8,525 with five more fatalities, the Health Department said in a bulletin. The state had registered 8,520 single-day cases and six deaths on Sunday. Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said in a tweet on Monday that he had tested positive. Renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik had also said late on Sunday that he was hospitalised after contracting the virus. Odisha now has 81,765 active cases, and 11,21,608 patients have so far recovered from the disease, the bulletin said.

The Omicron variant of coronavirus may evade several, but not all, monoclonal antibodies used clinically to prevent patients from developing severe COVID-19, according to a laboratory study. Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system's ability to fight off harmful pathogens such as viruses. Several past studies have shown that such antibodies are unsuccessful in neutralising Omicron. The team led led by researchers at Washington University, US, tested five antibody combinations, including those discovered at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre (VUMC) in the US.

The Omicron variant-driven wave of COVID-19 will now turn to small towns and villages in the coming few weeks after its transmission in metro cities as each time a wave follows this trend, said Dr Rajeev Jayadevan who is advising COVID-19 task force at IMA Kochi, Kerala. "Each time, a wave first hit high mobility areas which include metro cities and then to smaller areas and villages. So, within the next few weeks, it (Omicron driven wave) will travel to the smaller cities or towns and then the villages. This is a trend that's been observed worldwide," Dr Jayadevan told ANI. Speaking about whether Omicron could replace other COVID variants and it is going to remain as a common cold, Dr Rajeev said, "That is not true in fact if you look at the history of the pandemic in the last two years, variants have all died down. In fact, there is no variant that is survived long enough to be dominant. There may be a few stray cases here and there."

China on Sunday recorded 57 confirmed COVID-19 cases amid the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant cases in the country. Of the new local infections, six were reported in Beijing, three each in Hebei and Yunnan, two in Shandong, and one each in Tianjin, Shanxi, Henan and Guangdong, Xinhua reported citing the National Health Commission as saying on Monday. Sunday also saw reports of 39 imported COVID-19 cases across the mainland, the Chinese media said.

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, said Union Health Ministry

Former Nepal Prime Minister and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently in isolation at his residence, as the Himalayan nation continues to grapple with an alarming rise in coronavirus cases. “Chairman of our party – CPN-UML, KP Sharma Oli has tested positive for COVID-19 and is taking rest at his residence in Balkot,” Bishnu Rijal, Deputy Chief of the party’s Central Publicity department tweeted. Oli, 70, had been feeling uneasy, and a polymerase chain reaction test conducted on Saturday had returned positive, the Kathmandu Post newspaper said.

New coronavirus infections in Russia reached an all-time high on Sunday, the third consecutive daily record as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads through the country. The national coronavirus task force reported 63,205 new infections tallied in 24 hours — a spike of more than 25% since the record set on Friday. The task force reported 679 deaths, similar to other daily death counts in the past week. The omicron variant has been detected in 64 of the country's 89 regions and Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova says that authorities expect it to become the dominant variant.

Anthony Fauci, a top US infectious disease expert, has said he is confident that most states in the country will reach a peak of Omicron infection cases by mid-February. "You never want to be overconfident when you're dealing with this virus," Fauci added on Sunday in an interview with ABC News. "Things are looking good. We don't want to get overconfident, but they look like they're going in the right direction right now," he said. Fauci added that there are states in the northeast and in the upper midwest where cases have already peaked and declined "rather sharply." But cases are still rising in southern and western states, Xinhua news agency reported.

Maharashtra on Sunday reported 40,805 COVID-19 cases, taking its tally to 75,07,225, while 44 fatalities put the toll at 1,42,115. The discharge of 27,377 people during the day took the recovery count to 70,67,955, leaving the state with 2,93,305 active cases. No Omicron case was detected in the state during the day, keeping the tally of those affected by the new variant to 2,759, of which 1,437 have been discharged as well, the official said. The total number of Omicron cases in Mumbai is 1,009 and in Pune city 1,002.

Thirty more people died of COVID-19 in Punjab while 5,664 fresh coronavirus cases took the infection tally to 7,13,445, according to a medical bulletin issued on Sunday. Seven deaths were reported from Ludhiana, five from Jalandhar, three each from Pathankot and Mohali, two from Hoshiarpur and one each from Amritsar, Barnala, Bathinda, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Muktsar, Patiala, Sangrur and Tarn Taran. The toll reached 16,978. The number of active cases was 46,472.

Goa on Sunday reported 1,582 fresh coronavirus positive cases with the positivity rate reaching 40.18 per cent. With eight persons succumbing to the viral infection, the death toll rose to 3,610, as per the state health bulletin. The tally of COVID-19 cases in Goa now stands at 2,29,438 and the death toll 3,610. With 3,232 more people being discharged during the day, the number of recoveries in Goa went up to 2,06,103, the bulletin said. With 3,937 new tests, the count of samples examined so far in Goa has gone up to 17,78,174, he added.

Uttar Pradesh on Sunday reported 19 more fatalities due to COVID-19 as the death toll rose to 23,056, while 13,830 new cases pushed the infection tally to 19,46,819, officials said. Of the 19 deaths, three were reported from Chandauli, while two each were reported from Meerut and Mathura, they said.
In the last 24 hours, as many as 16,521 Covid patients recovered from the disease and were discharged, taking the total number of recoveries to 18,30,006. The count of active COVID-19 cases stands at 93,757, they said. In the last 24 hours, more than 2.32 lakh samples were tested, while so far, over 9.79 crore samples have been tested in the state, the statement said.