Omicron variant Updates: Maharashtra permits restaurants, theatres to operate at 50% capacity

India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 167.21 crore with more than 50 lakh vaccine doses being administered on Tuesday, the Union health ministry said.
The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day, it said.
Cumulatively, 54,19,67,745 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to individuals in the 18-44 age group across states and union territories and 40,81,92,353 second doses have been given in the same age group since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive, according to ministry data.
The ministry further said that cumulatively 94,33,81,379 first doses have been administered and 71,58,56,810 second doses have been given.

West Bengal on Tuesday reported 2,014 new COVID-19 cases, 104 more than the previous day, which pushed the tally to 19,97,530, the health department said in its bulletin.
Thirty-three more COVID-related deaths raised the toll to 20,652, it stated.
Kolkata accounted for 265 new cases while North 24 Parganas district registered 234, it said.
Nine fatalities were reported in North 24 Parganas and six in the city.

Uttar Pradesh's COVID-19 tally increased to 20,24,200 on Tuesday with 4,901 fresh cases, while the death toll climbed to 23,233 as 26 more people succumbed to the viral disease. Of the latest deaths, three were reported from Lucknow; two each from Gautam Budh Nagar, Kanpur Nagar, Hardoi, Pilibhit and Gonda; and one each from Lakhimpur Kheri, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Deoria, Unnao, Fatehpur, Maharajganj, Jaunpur, Ballia, Chandauli and Mahoba, the state government said in a statement here.

The Covid pandemic claimed seven more lives with the death toll due to it reaching 3,990 on Tuesday in Himachal Pradesh as the state recorded 1,403 fresh cases of infection, taking the tally to 2,72,952, an HP Health Department official said.
The victims included four women and three men in the age group of 52 to 75 years, he added.
Two deaths each were reported in Shimla and Una and one each in Kangra, Mandi and Hamirpur, he added.
The highest 283 fresh cases were found in Kangra, followed by 240 in Shimla, 193 in Mandi,150 in Solan,123 in Hamirpur, 92 in Bilaspur, 91 in Una, 86 in Sirmaur, 68 in Chamba, 56 in Kullu, 17 in Kinnaur and four in Lahaul-Spiti, he added.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in the state increased to 9,672 today from 9,281 on Monday, the official said.

 Telangana on Tuesday reported 2,850 fresh COVID-19 cases taking the statewide tally to 7,66,761 while the death toll rose to 4,091 with two more fatalities.
Recoveries outnumbered the fresh cases for the second consecutive day. The total recoveries in the state stood at 7,27,045 with 4,391 people being cured of the disease.
Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) reported the highest number of daily cases with 859, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri (173) and Rangareddy (157) districts, a state government bulletin said, providing details as of 5.30 pm.

COVID-19: 14,366 new cases in Karnataka, 58 deaths, 60,914 discharges

14,372 new cases in the state today. 94 COVID-19 deaths reported in the state today. Case fatality rate is the state is 1.84%

Sikkim's COVID-19 tally rose to 38,250 as 98 more people tested positive for the infection while three new fatalities pushed the death toll to 432, a health department bulletin said on Tuesday. Of the 98 new cases, East Sikkim district logged 47 followed by 39 in West Sikkim, 9 in South Sikkim and 3 in North Sikkim district.

The Himalayan state now has 852 active COVID-19 cases, while 36,285 people have recovered from the disease and 681 patients have migrated to other states, it said. The COVID-19 daily positivity rate now is 7.9 per cent, while the daily recovery rate is 96.6 per cent, the bulletin said.

Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday recorded 2,751 fresh coronavirus cases that took its infection tally to 4,38,176, while the death toll climbed to 4,683 as nine more people succumbed to the virus, officials said. Of the fresh cases, 1,105 were from the Jammu division and 1,646 from the Kashmir division of the union territory, they said. Jammu district recorded the highest number of fresh cases at 561, followed by 440 in Srinagar district.

There are 32,558 active coronavirus cases in Jammu and Kashmir. So far, 4,00,935 patients have recovered from the infection, the officials said. There are 51 confirmed mucormycosis (black fungus) cases in the union territory. No fresh case has been reported since last evening, they said. 

Denmark on Tuesday became one of the first European Union countries to scrap most pandemic restrictions as the Scandinavian country no longer considers the COVID-19 outbreak “a socially critical disease.”
The reason for that is that while the omicron variant is surging in Denmark, it's not placing a heavy burden on the health system and the country has a high vaccination rate, officials have said.
Denmark has in recent weeks seen more than 50,000 daily cases on average while the number of people in hospital intensive care units has dropped.
The most visible restriction disappearing is the wearing of face masks, which are no longer mandatory on public transportation, shops and for standing clients in restaurant indoor areas. Authorities only recommend mask use in hospitals, health care facilities and nursing homes.

A sub-variant of the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus strain is even more infectious than the original version, according to a study conducted in Denmark.
The researchers examined the transmission of Omicron subvariant BA.2 versus BA.1 in 8,541 Danish households and 17,945 household members.
The yet-to-be peer-reviewed finding, posted on the preprint repository MedRxiv, indicates that the rapid spread of BA.2 could be related to an inherent increased transmissibility of the sub-variant.
There is also evidence to support immune evasive properties of the BA.2 sub-variant, the researchers said.

The Indian medical devices industry has been given a cold shoulder in the Union Budget 2022-23 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam in the Parliament on Tuesday, the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AiMeD) said. "We were expecting the government to move forward on promised reforms and anticipated conducive measures to boost domestic manufacturing of medical devices," AiMeD Forum Coordinator Rajiv Nath said. It is frustrating that against our expectations, the government has not included any measures to help end the 80-85 per cent import dependence forced upon India and an ever increasing import bill of over Rs 46,000 crore, he added. According to Nath, the Budget has nothing for promote the growth of Indian medical devices industry other than repeating last year's assurance to end custom exemptions of products that can be made in India. "The only positive announcement was on Public Procurement by allowing 75 per cent prompt payments and bringing in a weighted price preference on account of quality which is especially critical in healthcare related medical devices," he said.

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Puducherry confirmed 640 new coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours ending 10 a.m. on Tuesday raising the overall tally to 1,61,891. The new cases were identified at the end of examination of 3,366 samples and the cases were spread over Puducherry (380), Karaikal 179, Yanam 71 and Mahe 10. Four more people succumbed to the infection during last 24 hours raising the overall toll to 1,935. The deceased were in the age groups ranging between 33 and 75. They died either of severe covid pneumonia or septic shock. Director of Health G Sriramulu said in a release that the active cases were 9,267 of which 144 were in hospitals taking treatment and the remaining 9123 were in home quarantine. He said 1,069 patients recovered and were discharged during last twenty-four hours while overall recoveries were 1, 50,689.

The active cases in Ladakh decreased to 1,087 as 250 coronavirus patients have been cured and discharged on Monday while the Union Territory has reported 125 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 25,994, officials said. The UT has recorded 224 covid-related deaths- 165 in Leh and 59 in Kargil- since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, they said. There was no death reported from the Union Territory on Monday, they said. As many as 250 patients were cured and discharged from hospitals in Ladakh. Of these, 129 were discharged in Leh and 121 in Kargil, while the total number of cured patients is 24,710, they said.

Current Covid-19 vaccines provide robust protection against severe disease caused by both the Delta and Omicron variants, according to a study. Omicron variant has been shown to cause breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, thanks to its ability to evade the virus-killing neutralising antibodies that the body makes in response to getting vaccinated. But the study by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) demonstrated that existing Covid vaccines induce cellular immunity -- or the production of protective immune cells, such as so-called killer and memory cells, even against Omicron. The findings are published in Nature. "Our data provide immunological context for the observation that current vaccines still provide robust protection against severe disease and hospitalisation due to the Omicron variant despite substantially reduced neutralising antibody responses and increased breakthrough infection," said Dan H. Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at BIDMC.

Pakistan reported 5,327 new COVID-19 cases and 32 more deaths on Monday, said the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC).The active cases have increased to 105,675, including 1,500 patients who are in critical condition, said NCOC.

Maharashtra: Normal sale of platform tickets resumes at Pune railway station. With effect from February 1, the platform tickets will be available at Rs 10 per person. The cost was earlier raised to Rs 50 to deter unnecessary crowding at the railway station amid the COVID pandemic.

In the last 24 hours, India registered a 20 per cent dip in new Covid-19 cases with 1,67,059 infections, but the fresh fatalities surged to a whopping 1,192, said the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday. The single-day deaths saw a surge after Kerala added 638 fatalities as backlog to Tuesday's count, said the Ministry. The nationwide death toll thus climbed to 4,96,242. Meanwhile, the active caseload has reported a marginal decline at 17,43,059 which constitute 4.20 per cent of the country's total positive cases. The recovery of 2,54,076 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally to 3,92,30,198. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 94.60 per cent. Also in the same period, a total of 14,28,672 tests were conducted across the country, which took the total to 73.06 crore. While the weekly positivity rate stood at 15.25 per cent, the daily positivity rate has come down to 11.69 per cent. With the administration of over 61 lakh vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's Covid inoculation coverage reached 166.68 crore as of Tuesday morning. More than 11.92 crore balance and unutilised Covid vaccine doses are still available with the states and UTs.

The Chinese mainland reported 27 new locally-transmitted COVID-19 infections and a total of 39 new imported corona cases on Monday, reported Xinhua news agency.Of the new local cases, 13 were reported in the province of Zhejiang, seven in Tianjin, four in Hebei, two in Beijing, and one in Guangdong, according to the National Health Commission on Tuesday.Notably, a total of 40 COVID cases were reported in China on Sunday.

In fresh guidelines to ease COVID-19 curbs in 11 districts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, the state government has allowed an increase in the number of guests at marriage functions, and also permitted swimming pools, water parks, theatres and restaurants to remain open with 50 per cent capacity subject to nod of the competent authority. After a surge COVID-19 cases last month, the state has now been recording a dip in the new infections reported daily. On Monday, Maharashtra reported 15,140 new coronavirus cases, 7,304 less than the day before, and 39 fatalities due to the infection, according to the state health department. The fresh guidelines issued late Monday night have relaxed the curbs in 11 districts of the state where over 90 per cent of the eligible people have received the first dose of vaccine against COVID-19 and 70 per cent have received both the doses. These 11 districts are Mumbai, Pune, Bhandara, Sindhudurg, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Satara, Sangli, Gondia, Kolhapur and Chandrapur. As per the fresh guidelines issued by state Chief Secretary Debashish Chakrabarty, all national parks and tourist spots in the state will remain open, while spas can function at 50 per cent capacity. There shall be no limit on the number of people to attend a funeral, as per the order. “Marriages may have guests up to 25 per cent of the capacity of the open ground and banquet halls, or 200, whichever is lower,” it said with respect to the 11 districts.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Andaman and Nicobar Islands has come down to 365 as 54 more people were cured of the disease and 17 tested positive for the infection in the last 24 hours, a health department official said on Tuesday. Single-day recoveries outnumbered new infections in the Union Territory for the second consecutive day, he said. The active caseload was at 402 the previous day. The fresh cases raised the tally in the archipelago to 9,794, while 9,300 people have recuperated from the disease so far, he said. Of the new patients, four have travel history and 13 were detected during contact tracing. Thirty-four fresh cases of the coronavirus infection were reported on January 30. The death toll remained at 129 in the archipelago as no new fatality due to the disease was registered in the last 24 hours, the official said. The local administration has adopted an approach of tracking, testing and treating, he said. Altogether 6,04,194 people have been inoculated in the Union Territory. Over 6.84 lakh sample tests have been conducted for COVID-19 till Monday, and the positivity rate stood at 1.43 per cent, the official added.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced that the country is working to lift all Covid-19-related restrictions in February. Marin's announcement came at a meeting with the Finnish Association of Editors, just two days after Finland entered its third pandemic year, reports Xinhua news agency. "The restrictions should be lifted during February, as the tolerance of the citizens has been tested for a long time," she told Finnish daily Ilta-Samomat. Marin said that her government will negotiate its strategy for easing pandemic measures on Wednesday. However, Finnish health experts expressed concern. "Some kind of restraint must be maintained here," said Mika Valtonen, executive physician at Turku University Clinic (TYKS).

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The entire eligible population of Uttar Pradesh has received the first dose of vaccine against Covid-19, health officials have confirmed. The milestone was achieved at around 8.30 p.m. on Monday. The officials informed that while district wise data was still being tabulated, the state has crossed the 100 per cent mark. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had set January 31 as the deadline for first dose saturation. "The estimated adult population to be vaccinated in Uttar Pradesh is 14.74 crore. And, as of Monday evening, the entire chunk has taken at least one dose," said a senior health officer. The record has been achieved in 380 days. The officer added that nearly 50 per cent of the districts in the state also achieved the goal. The list includes Gautam Buddha Nagar, Lucknow, Jhansi, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Ambedkar Nagar, Chandauli, Sultanpur, Mirzapur, Kannauj and Mathura among others. In the process, the state also crossed the 26-crore dose mark which is highest in the country. The total number of doses administered in the state is 26.14 crore. In terms of people, 15.69 crore, including 95 lakh adolescents, have taken the first dose, while 10.31 crore are fully vaccinated.

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Amid an ongoing resurgence across the world, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 377.8 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.67 million and vaccinations to over 9.97 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on Tuesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 377,891,211 and 5,672,065, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 9,979,718,255. The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 74,938,767 and 886,668, according to the CSSE. The second worst hit country in terms of cases is India (41,302,440 infections and 495,050 deaths), followed by Brazil (25,360,647 infections and 627,150 deaths). The other countries with over 5 million cases are France (19,266,496), the UK (16,582,263), Russia (11,547,333), Turkey (11,526,621), Italy (10,925,485), Spain (9,779,130), Germany (9,776,648), Argentina (8,335,184), Iran (6,344,179) and Colombia (5,871,977), the CSSE figures showed. The nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Russia (323,452), Mexico (305,762), Peru (205,347), the UK (156,222), Italy (146,149), Indonesia (144,303), Colombia (134,079), Iran (132,424), France (131,937), Argentina (120,988)), Germany (117,734), Ukraine (106,793) and Poland (105,161).

Over 3.5 million child Covid-19 cases were reported in the US in January, marking "a dramatic spike" during the Omicron variant surge, according to a new report. The report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association released on Monday said that more than 11.4 million children in the country have tested positive for Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, Xinhua news agency reported. Nearly two million of these cases have been added in the past two weeks. For the week ending January 27, over 808,000 additional child Covid-19 cases were reported in the country, said the AAP, adding child cases this week remained "extremely high", triple the peak level of the Delta surge in 2021. This marked the 25th week in a row child Covid-19 cases in the US were above 100,000. Since the first week of September 2021, there have been almost 6.4 million additional child cases, according to the AAP.

Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine has received full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The vaccine, named Spikevax, is approved for use in people ages 18 and older, Xinhua news agency reported. Spikevax meets the FDA's rigorous standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality required for approval, said the agency in a statement. "While millions of people have already safely received Covid-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated," said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock. "Today's milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the US," she said.

Demand and supply of the residential housing sector was affected by Covid-19-induced restrictions, the Economic Survey 2021-22, tabled in the Parliament on Monday, said. It revealed that the number of unsold residential units have also witnessed significant drops during the second wave of the pandemic. According to the Survey, the decline in housing transactions have also been much less during the second wave of Covid than during the first wave. "During first Covid-19 wave, housing transactions declined in almost all selected cities. However, during the second wave of Covid-19, the housing transactions in many cities such as Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Noida, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru increased relative to the pre-pandemic levels. In cities such as Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Ranchi, Delhi and Kolkata, the housing transactions declined during the second Covid-19 wave over the pre-pandemic levels. However, this decline has been much less than the decline during the first Covid-19 wave," it said. The Survey said that amidst initial Covid-19 restrictions, not only did construction of new houses slow down, but launch of new housing projects also got delayed and with the loss of income, uncertainty about future income, and stay at home orders, home buyers delayed their housing purchases.

The Odisha government on Monday extended the Covid-19 guidelines issued for the month of January for another month, till February end, with little modifications. Both the guidelines issued for Covid-19 and panchayat elections in the state will remain in force till February 28. Night curfew will continue to remain in force in all the urban areas of Odisha from 10 pm to 5 am, as per the order issued by Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), P.K. Jena. All shops, malls, shopping complexes, markets/haats, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment complexes, theatres, auditoriums, assembly halls and similar places can remain open across the state from 5 am to 10 pm every day. During the night curfew period, home delivery of food, groceries, vegetables, egg, fish, meat, milk and other essential items by restaurants and aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy, OPOLFED, OMFED, Chilika Fresh etc. have been allowed. The SRC has also put restrictions on celebration of Saraswati Puja and Magha Saptami/Magha Purnima during the month of February.

Germany's seven-day Covid-19 incidence rate continued to rise and hit a new record of 1,176.8 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases has said. The RKI on Monday registered 78,318 new cases in the previous 24 hours, around 15,000 more than a week ago, Xinhua news agency reported. Last week, two years after the first case of Covid-19 was discovered in Germany, daily infections hit 200,000 for the first time. Despite high case number due to the Omicron wave, the country's vaccination campaign has slowed down. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's goal to vaccinate 80 per cent of the population against Covid-19 at least once by the end of January was missed. Germany was not making enough progress with vaccinations, according to Scholz. "We should be much higher. We have the goal of making further progress. That is also happening, but not at the pace that would be necessary," he said last week. As of Sunday, 75.8 per cent of the German population had received at least one vaccine dose, according to official data. Nearly 53 per cent of the population had also received a booster shot.

More than a year after a bout with COVID-19, Rebekah Hogan still suffers from severe brain fog, pain and fatigue that leave her unable to do her nursing job or handle household activities. Long COVID has her questioning her worth as a wife and mother. “Is this permanent? Is this the new norm?'' said the 41-year-old Latham, New York, woman, whose three children and husband also have signs of the condition. “I want my life back." More than a third of COVID-19 survivors by some estimates will develop such lingering problems. Now, with omicron sweeping across the globe, scientists are racing to pinpoint the cause of the bedeviling condition and find treatments before a potential explosion in long COVID cases. Could it be an autoimmune disorder? That could help explain why long COVID-19 disproportionately affects women, who are more likely than men to develop autoimmune diseases. Could microclots be the cause of symptoms ranging from memory lapses to discolored toes? That could make sense, since abnormal blood clotting can occur in COVID-19. As these theories and others are tested, there is fresh evidence that vaccination may reduce the chances of developing long COVID. It's too soon to know whether people infected with the highly contagious omicron variant will develop the mysterious constellation of symptoms, usually diagnosed many weeks after the initial illness. But some experts think a wave of long COVID is likely and say doctors need to be prepared for it. With $1 billion from Congress, the National Institutes of Health is funding a vast array of research on the condition. And clinics devoted to studying and treating it are popping up around the world, affiliated with places such as Stanford University in California and University College London.

Studies conducted by a group of international researchers on Monday said that the COVID-19 variant Omicron causes less severe symptoms in the lungs of hamsters than the Delta variant.The researchers examined differences in symptoms in hamsters separately infected with the Omicron and the Delta variants, reported NHK World.They said that, three days after becoming infected, the hamsters with the Omicron variant had much smaller amounts of the virus in their lungs than those with the Delta variant.The group said that its studies with the hamsters show that the Omicron variant is less pathogenic and has a lower ability to proliferate than the Delta variant.

All universities, colleges, polytechnics, ITIs, Training institutes and other institutes of higher education will re-open in Chandigarh from Tuesday, said an order from the Directorate of Higher Education of the Union Territory.Institutional institutions will open only for academic and related activities. COVID-19 appropiate behaviour like social distancing, mask-wearing, hand hygiene and sanitisation will have to be followed in the institution and the head of the institution should ensure adherence to it, says the order. "All students in age group of 15-18 years should have received at least first dose of COVID vaccination. All teaching/non-teaching staff and students of 18 years and above should be fully vaccinated," added the order.All the public libraries and branches will be opened with 50 per cent capacity in adherence to COVID-19 norms.Hostels will be operational. Students occupying their hostels will have to produce a negative RT-PCR test report, not older than 72 hours. "COVID norms will be strictly adhered to in canteens, mess and common room etc," added the order.All coaching institutions are allowed to open at 50 per cent capacity as long as all students in the age group of 15-18 years have received at least the first dose of COVID vaccination and the teaching/non-teaching staff and students of 18 years and above are fully vaccinated."However, heads of the institution can exempt any teaching/non-teaching staff/students on medical grounds," added the order.