Omicron Variant LIVE Updates: India's tally rises to 21 with 17 more testing positive for new COVID strain

One death and 29 coronavirus cases were reported in Rajasthan on Monday, bringing the fatality count to 8,956 and the infection tally to 9,54,920 in the state, according to an official report. The new death was reported from Bikaner. The previous death linked to the virus was reported on November 18 in Jaipur.

US: New York City to impose a vaccine mandate for all private sector employers from December 27 as a preemptive measure to combat the resurge of coronavirus, announces Mayor Bill de Blasio

Two more cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus, a 37-year-old South Africa returnee man & his 36-year-old US returnee friend, have been confirmed in Maharashtra, taking the total number of the cases to 10 in the state: Maharashtra Govt | READ MORE

A total of 9 cases were found positive at a college in Mangaluru out of 173 samples. The college has been declared a containment zone. We've sent samples for genomic sequencing to confirm the variant: Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Dr. Rajendra KV

We've updated testing capacity at int'l arrival with the deployment of 120 Rapid PCR machines, taking hourly capacity to 500-600/hr with TAT of less than 60 mins. There's a provision for approx 500 RTPCR tests per/hr. This'll further smoothen int'l arrival process: Delhi Airport

85% of the eligible population of India inoculated with the first dose of Covid vaccine, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said

Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday directed Delhi airport operator DIAL to implement better crowd management strategies after passengers complained of chaos and crowding at its terminal following the implementation of new coronavirus-related travel guidelines, senior government officials said.

The number of COVID19 cases at a school rises to 101, including 90 students and 11 staff. Samples will be sent for genome sequencing, says Dr Umesh, District Health Officer, Chikkamagalur.

The scientist behind the creation of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, administered in India as Covishield to protect against COVID-19, on Monday warned that the next virus to hit humankind may be even more lethal and contagious.

Two people have been confirmed to be infected with the Omicron Covid-19 variant in Nepal, making it the first reported cases of the new strain, the Ministry of Health and Population announced on Monday.

According to the Ministry, the two infected individuals are a Nepali (71) and a foreigner (66) and they are been fully vaccinated against Covid.

The coronavirus cases in a residential school hostel in Seegodu village in Karnataka's Chikkamagalur district rose to 107 on Monday. The district health authorities are present at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya school to monitor the Covid-19 situation and treat the infected children.

Initially, three students and four staff members of the school tested positive for Covid-19. Later on Saturday, the infected cases rose to 40 and on Sunday, 67 cases were detected.

The health department has collected the swab samples of 418 students and all staff members and sent them for testing.  On Monday, 38 more cases were detected, taking the number of cases to 107.

While the Covid-19 crisis is not over yet with the new super mutant Omicron spreading to 38 countries, the next pandemic could be even more lethal, said the creator of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine Professor Sarah Gilbert.

Delivering the 44th Richard Dimbleby Lecture, Gilbert cautioned that it is increasingly obvious that "this pandemic is not done with us", and vaccines could also prove to be less effective against the Omicron variant, the BBC reported.

Karnataka Education Minister B.C. Nagesh hinted at the closure of schools in the state if needed in view of the increase in Covid cases being reported in schools, nursing schools, colleges and hostels and also considering the threat of new variant Omicron.

The number of people suspected to have been infected with the Omicron Covid variant in Delhi has increased to 27, of which 17 of them have tested positive for the virus, Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Monday.

Sixteen districts in Karnataka have seen a rise in the number of new Covid cases in the first week of December. As many as 500 students have tested positive in the recent past, causing a major worry for the authorities. Sources in the health department said that if the same trend continued then restrictions may be put during the New Year and Christmas celebrations.

The risk level of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Korea's capital area over the past week has been at the highest level for two weeks in a row, health authorities said on Monday.

Earlier, South Korea introduced a new five-tier assessment system to evaluate the risk level of Covid-19 on a weekly basis that is used to decide whether to further ease virus restrictions under its three-phase "living with Covid-19" scheme, which began on November 1, reports Yonhap News Agency.

If the risk level reaches the fourth degree or higher, the government is supposed to carry out an "emergency evaluation" of the pandemic situation for the potential enforcement of contingency plans while halting the relaxed curbs.

The level for the greater Seoul area, which includes Seoul and the surrounding Gyeonggi province, came to the fifth, the top level, for two weeks in a row, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The Karnataka health department is awaiting the genome sequencing test results of five persons who came in contact with a doctor infected with the Omicron Covid variant. The results are expected to arrive on Monday.

The state is also seeking the approval of the Centre to conduct genome sequencing tests in four additional labs for quicker results.

Cambodia has removed a ban on travellers from 10 African countries after it was imposed nearly a week ago due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19, Health Minister Mam Bunheng said.

With the approval from Prime Minister Hun Sen, the Ministry of Health (MoH) decided to lift the ban on travellers from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Angola and Zambia, he said, adding that the removal took effect immediately on Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.

But the travellers from the 10 countries and those who have a history of traveling to the nations in the last two weeks must undergo a rapid test for Covid-19 upon their arrival in Cambodia, he said.

The Omicron variant, with more than 30 mutations on its spike protein, may not be as dangerous as the Delta and Alpha and other variants of coronavirus, which has so far claimed more than five millions lives across the world. However, the variant appears to be more contagious, said a scientist from Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Israel.

Harbin, capital of China's Heilongjiang province, has designated five more neighbourhoods as medium-risk areas for Covid-19 due to a spike in the number of confirmed cases.

The city's anti-epidemic headquarters on Saturday evening added three medium-risk areas starting from Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.

Harbin currently has more than 20 medium-risk areas across the city. The provincial health committee reported 10 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on Saturday, all in Harbin.

The province has a total of 29 local cases and one asymptomatic carrier, according to the committee.

The number of Omicron Covid-19 variant cases in Israel have rose from seven to 11, the Israeli Health Ministry has said in a statement.

Two of the four new cases are passengers who have recently returned from France. Both of them have received three shots of the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19, Xinhua news agency reported.

The third case is a patient who was also vaccinated with three Pfizer doses, and was infected with the variant after coming into contact with a passenger who returned from South Africa.

A person who returned from the US, and tested positive for Omicron despite receiving three doses of the Moderna vaccine is the fourth case.

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 265.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.25 million and vaccination to over 8.17 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Monday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 265,824,521 and 5,255,456, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered was 8,172,059,082.

Singapore's Ministry of Health has said that early clinical observations globally suggest that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 may be more transmissible and have a higher risk of reinfection compared to the Delta and Beta variants of the virus.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday voiced hope for a quick approval of the country's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine by the World Health Organization, saying the move is essential for expanding its global supplies.

United States health officials said that while the omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than delta, which continues to drive a surge of hospitalisations.

President Joe Biden's chief medial adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, told CNN's “State of the Union” on Sunday that scientists need more information before drawing conclusion's about omicron's severity.

Reports from South Africa, where it emerged and is becoming the dominant strain, suggest that hospitalisation rates have not increased alarmingly.

A further 86 cases of the Omicron Covid variant have been reported in the UK, taking the total to 246, health authorities confirmed on Sunday.

This compares with a total of 160 on Saturday, an increase of more than 50 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) figures.

Two relatives of the Gujarat's first Omicron case, a Zimbabwe resident in Jamnagar, were diagnosed as Covid positive on Sunday, and have been isolated and their samples sent for genome sequencing.

Nodal officer for Covid at GG Hospital, Jamnagar, Dr. S Chatterjee told IANS that after the 72-year-old Zimbabwe resident's results turning out to be Omicron positive, we had taken fresh samples from his close contacts and sent them for Covid-19 test. Out of them, we have got two cases of Covid-19 positive, which earlier showed negative. One positive is his wife (47) and the other is his brother-in-law (35). We have admitted both of them and they are in isolation."