Omicron variant Updates: Maharashtra detects 122 new cases, fresh covid cases drop to 31,111

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Kerala reports 22,946 new #COVID19 cases and 5290 recoveries in last 24 hours. 18 deaths confirmed in last few days and 54 deaths added as per the new guidelines of central government. Death toll 50,904, active cases 1,31,458: State Government

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The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to urge the Central government to reduce by three months, the gap for administering precautionary dose of Covid vaccine. At the Covid review meeting on Monday, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy decided to write a letter to the Central government seeking to reduce the gap from the existing nine months to six months. The chief minister opined that reducing the gap for precautionary or booster dose by three - four months, would benefit frontline workers and those who provide emergency services and also prevent many people from being hospitalised, state government officials said. After studying the prevailing Covid situation in the state, the chief minister directed the officials to focus on scaling up vaccination in five districts of East Godavari, Guntur, YSR Kadapa, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, which have the lowest rate of second dose vaccination. He said vaccination to the age group of 15-18 years has been completed 100 percent in Nellore and West Godavari, and i

Sikkim on Monday reported 217 new COVID-19 cases, 96 less than the previous day, with the tally rising to 34,929, a health department bulletin said. Of the fresh cases, 111 were recorded in East Sikkim, 70 in South Sikkim, 34 in West Sikkim and two in North Sikkim. The Himalayan state now has 2,012 active cases, while 447 COVID patients have migrated to other parts of the country and 32,057 people have recovered from the disease. The death toll remained at 413 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said. The state has conducted over 2.93 lakh sample tests for COVID-19 so far, including 1,003 on Sunday. The daily positivity rate stood 21.6 per cent, while the recovery ratio was at 93 per cent

CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has held a review meeting on prevailing Covid situation & decided to write a letter to the Centre seeking to reduce the gap for administering 'precautionary dose' from existing nine months to six months: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Office

With COVID-19 cases spreading unabated across the country, the Puducherry government on Monday has decided to allow only 50 per cent of its staff to work in offices. In line with the Centre's guidelines, the territorial administration has issued an order directing the government offices and departments here to have only 50 per cent of its Group B and Group C staff coming to offices till January 31, Under Secretary to Department of Personnel and Administrative Affairs of Puducherry V Jaishankar said. He said all Group A officers, under secretaries to the government and heads of departments should attend office with full strength. However, persons with disabilities (PwD) and pregnant women employees ar exempted from attending office and they can work from home, the order stated. Departments rendering essential services, the revenue-generating departments and those involved in implementation of COVID control activities are not eligible to be covered by this order of having a cap of 50 per cent staff strength.

People who use electronic cigarettes and test positive for Covid-19 have a higher frequency of experiencing Covid symptoms, compared to people who don't vape, according to new research from Mayo Clinic. The study, published in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, found that symptoms include headaches, muscle aches and pain, chest pain, nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, and loss of the sense of smell or taste. People who vape and also smoked tobacco, and tested positive for Covid, complained of laboured breathing and had more frequent emergency department visits than those who did not vape.

Starting from Wednesday, 967 schools in Kerala will turn into Covid-19 vaccination centres with the aim to inoculate all students who were born in or after 2007. State Education Minister V. Sivankutty on Monday said that a special room will be assigned for the inoculation drive. "There are 8.14 lakh children are yet to be vaccinated and of this 51 per cent have got their first dose. Vaccination will be given only with the consent of the parents," said Sivankutty. He also pointed out that it has been found out that the school children have not been affected by Covid, but as a matter of caution all classes up to 9 and around 3.5 million students will go into off line mode after Friday and will continue for the next two weeks.

The Omicron surge of coronavirus cases had not yet peaked in the US and the country is expected to see an increase in hospitalisations and deaths in the next few weeks, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has warned. The highly contagious Omicron variant has fueled an explosive surge of known cases, with an average of more than 800,000 new cases a day reported on Saturday, according to a New York Times database.

In Kansas City, Omicron has overwhelmed hospitals since the holiday season, the city's mayor, Quentin Lucas, said in an interview on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"We have seen incredible challenges in our health care network, even getting employees that are working in our EMS services, fire department and in public safety,a Lucas said. "It is a substantial concern."

About 2,500 Delhi Police personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 since January 1 and 767 of them have recovered, an official said on Monday. According to the latest data, since January 1, about 2,500 Delhi Police personnel from all ranks and units of the force tested positive for Covid. Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Chinmoy Biswal who is also the spokesperson of Delhi Police had tested positive for the virus.
He, however, has recovered and resumed work, a senior police officer said.

"Many of them are recouping well and resuming their duties on a daily basis," the officer added.

"About 2,500 personnel have tested positive for Coronavirus since January 1 till date. Out of them, 767 infected personnel of the force have recovered and resumed their work," said Biswal, Delhi Police PRO. Meanwhile, a special camp is being organised for police personnel of all ranks to administer booster doses to eligible ones. The strength of the Delhi Police force is over 80,000, police said.

The union territory of Puducherry witnessed a dip in number of new coronavirus cases with 907 being added during the last 24 hours while the active cases rose to 8,359 on Monday. The test positivity rate shot up to 57.44 per cent from 43.66 per cent on Sunday, Director of Health Department G Sriramulu said in a release.

Ladakh reported 175 more corona cases, taking the overall caseload in the Union Territory to 23,384, out of which 22,342 people have recuperated while active cases stand at 820, officials said on Monday. Of the new cases, 156 positive samples were received from Leh district and 19 in Kargil district, the officials said. According to the officials, the COVID-19 death toll remained unchanged at 222 with 164 fatalities in Leh and 58 in Kargil. The officials said 89 patients were discharged from hospitals in Leh and seven in Kargil after undergoing successful treatment for COVID-19, taking the number of recovered cases in Ladakh to 22,342. Of the active cases, 702 are under treatment in Leh and 118 in Kargil, the officials said, adding that the total positivity rate in Ladakh stands at 3.
8 per cent.

Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Monday said that the city is likely to witness 4,000-5,000 less COVID-19 cases than the number reported on Sunday. He also said the vaccination drive in Delhi completed one year on Monday and a total of 2.85 crore doses have been administered so far. Jain said that Covid cases in the city have been reducing and Monday will be the fourth straight day when the number of cases will be lesser than the cases reported on the previous day. “Fresh cases today (Monday) are likely to be 4,000-5,000 less than over 18,000 reported yesterday (Sunday). It is expected to be around 13,000-14,000 today,” Jain said in a media byte.

Odisha on Monday recorded 10,489 new COVID-19 cases, 688 less than the previous day, with the tally mounting to 11,44,401, a health department bulletin said. The death toll rose 8,484 as three more patients- two in Bhubaneswar and one in Angul- succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours, it said. Fifty-three other COVID patients have died due to comorbidities so far.

Maharashtra - 1,738

West Bengal-1,672

Rajasthan-1,276

Delhi-549

Karnataka-548

Kerala-536

Uttar Pradesh-275

Telangana-260

Tamil Nadu-241

Gujarat-236

Odisha-201

Haryana-169

Andhra Pradesh-155

Uttarakhand-93

Meghalaya-75

Punjab-61

Bihar-27

Jammu and Kashmir-23

Goa-21

Jharkhand-14

Madhya Pradesh-10

Assam-9

Chhattisgarh-8

Andaman and Nicobar Islands-3

Chandigarh-3

Ladakh-2

Puducherry-2

Himachal Pradesh-1

Manipur-1

Total cases: 8,209

Recovered/Discharged: 3,109

(Ministry of Health Data)

Uttarakhand has reported 85 new cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Genome sequencing reports of 159 COVID-19 samples confirmed the Omicron variant in 85 on Sunday, Director General, Health, Tripti Bahuguna said. It means the new variant of the pandemic has been confirmed in 54 per cent of the samples, she said. Genome sequencing reports of 2,096 samples are still awaited. Uttarakhand had reported eight cases of Omicron earlier. Covid curbs, meanwhile, have been extended in Uttarakhand till January 22.

The Puducherry health department said that 30 health officials, including doctors, have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past week. In a statement on Sunday, the department's Director, G. Sriramalu said: "In the last one week, 30 health officials including 12 doctors tested positive in the union territory. They are undergoing treatment."

Thirteen more people died of COVID-19 in Punjab while 7,396 fresh cases took the infection tally to 6,63,867, according to a medical bulletin issued on Sunday. Three deaths were reported from Ludhiana, two each from Pathankot and Mohali and one each from Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Mansa and Patiala, taking the death to 16,769 since the pandemic struck. The number of active cases rose to 41,250 from 37,546 in 24 hours.

Uttar Pradesh reported 17,185 new cases of COVID-19 during the last 24 hours, said a press release from the state government on Sunday. During the last 24 hours, 2,57,694 samples were tested. 8,802 people recovered from the infection during the last 24 hours. There are currently 1,03,474 active COVID-19 cases in the state. Uttar Pradesh has given a total of over 23.06 crore COVID-19 vaccination doses to date. 

The Kerala Government on Sunday issued guidelines to start COVID-19 vaccination in schools for children aged between 15 and 18 years from January 19. The decision was taken in a high-level meeting attended by Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty and Health Minister Veena George today. In the meeting, it was decided that district task forces, with the help of the education department, will identify the schools where COVID-19 vaccination is to be conducted. Schools with more than 500 beneficiaries will be selected as vaccination sites. School authorities have to ensure the waiting area, vaccination room and observation room. School vaccination sessions will be linked with nearby Government COVID-19 vaccination centres, said Veena George. During the meeting, it was decided that the school authorities have to prepare the list of students receiving COVID-19 vaccination in a single day and to inform the students about the timing allotted to them. The authorities should ensure all students eligible for vaccination have completed registration in the Co-Win portal.

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Maharashtra on Sunday recorded 41,327 fresh coronavirus positive cases, 1,135 less than the day before, and 29 deaths, the state health department said. The number of recovered cases in Maharashtra increased to 68,00,900 after 40,386 patients were discharged during the day, leaving the state with 2,65,346 active cases. The overall caseload in the state now stands at 72,11,810 and the death toll at 1,41,808.

 West Bengal’s COVID-19 tally climbed to 18,97,699 on Sunday with 14,938 fresh cases, while 36 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 20,088, a health department bulletin said. The state had registered 19,064 new infections and 39 deaths on Saturday. Its positivity rate stood at 27.73 per cent, the bulletin said. Kolkata registered the highest number of fresh fatalities at 12, followed by five in neighbouring North 24 Parganas district and four in Howrah.
The state capital logged 3,893 single-day cases. West Bengal now has 1,60,305 active cases, and 17,17,306 people have recovered from the disease, including 9,973 since Saturday.