***CORONA VIRUS UPDATES***

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Omicron-Infected Man Returned To Gujarat From Zimbabwe, India's 3rd Case

Omicron: A man from Gujarat who tested positive for Omicron is the third confirmed case in India.

 

New Delhi: 

A man who returned from Zimbabwe has been found infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Gujarat's Jamnagar, the state health department said. This is the third Omicron case in India.

The sample of the Jamnagar resident, a 72-year-old man, was sent for genome sequencing after he tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, news agency PTI reported quoting the state health department, adding Gujarat health commissioner Jai Prakash Shivhare has confirmed that the man was found infected with Omicron.

A micro-containment zone has been created where the Omicron-infected man stays and Gujarat officials are tracing and testing people there. 

"We've isolated him and are monitoring him. A micro containment zone has been made where he is living. In the area, we will do the tracing, testing of people," Manoj Aggarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Gujarat, told news agency ANI.

The other two cases in India are of a 46-year-old fully vaccinated doctor from Bengaluru, who had no travel history and developed symptoms of fever and body ache, and a 66-year-old South African national who came to India with a negative COVID-19 report.

The country has stepped up testing and surveillance of all incoming international passengers, especially from at-risk nations since the Omicron variant was first detected in South Africa.

The World Health Organisation has said it could take weeks to determine whether Omicron is more transmissible and whether it causes more severe infections - as well as how effective current treatments and vaccines are against it.

But the new variant has already cast the world's recovery into doubt. More than two dozen nations including India have now detected cases of the variant.

The Health Ministry on Friday said it expects the Omicron variant to cause less severe disease, thanks to vaccinations and high prior exposure to the Delta variant that infected nearly 70 per cent of the population by July.

Nearly half of India's 944 million adults have been fully vaccinated. As many as 84 per cent have received at least one dose, with more than 125 million people eligible now as the government pushes more to get inoculated in the face of Omicron.

"Given the fast pace of vaccination in India and high exposure to Delta variant, the severity of the disease is anticipated to be low. However, scientific evidence is still evolving," the Health Ministry said.

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Maharashtra man who returned from South Africa tests positive for Omicron, fourth case in India

A man who returned from South Africa to Maharashtra’s Mumbai via Dubai and Delhi has tested positive for Omicron variant of coronavirus.

This is the fourth Omicron case to be detected in India. Earlier in the day, a 71-year old NRI, who landed in Gujarat’s Jamnagar city from Zimbabwe was found to be infected with the Omicron variant, according to the nodal officer of Covid-19 in the city.

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India records 8,895 fresh cases, 2,796 deaths as Bihar reconciles data

India had recorded a single-day rise of 3,998 fatalities on July 21 after Maharashtra carried out the 14th reconciliation exercise of its Covid data.

 

India saw a single-day rise of 2,796 fatalities with Bihar carrying out a reconciliation exercise of its Covid data, pushing the country's death toll to 4,73,326, while 8,895 new infections were reported, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.

 

 

India's total tally of COVID-19 cases has increased to 3,46,33,255, according to the data updated at 8 am.

India had recorded a single-day rise of 3,998 fatalities on July 21 after Maharashtra carried out the 14th reconciliation exercise of its Covid data.

As for a high 2,796 fatalities, the Union health ministry said, 2,426 reconciled deaths by Bihar were adjusted in Sunday's database. Kerala also cleared a backlog of 263 deaths. Hence, the nation's death tally is showing a spike.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been less than 50,000 for 161 consecutive days now.

The active cases stand at 99,155, comprising 0.29 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020. The national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.35 per cent, the health ministry said.

A decrease of 819 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours, it said.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.73 per cent. It has been less than 2 per cent for the last 62 days.

The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 0.80 per cent. It has remained below 1 per cent for the last 21 days, according to the health ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 3,40,60,774 while the case fatality rate has increased to 1.37 per cent.

The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country so far has exceeded 127.61 crore.

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore COVID-19 cases on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

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Delhi reports first case of Omicron variant, fifth in India

On Sunday, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain confirmed the first case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Delhi.

On Sunday, Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain confirmed the first case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Delhi. The patient, who had returned from Tanzania, has been admitted to the designated Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in the national capital.

 

 

Earlier this week, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra had reported confirmed cases of Omicron. There are a total of five Omicron cases in India so far.

 

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16 Suspected Omicron Patients Now at Delhi's LNJP Hospital

Sixteen suspected patients of Omicron, who flew in the national capital from “at risk” countries”, are admitted to the Delhi government’s LNJP hospital, according to sources.

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COVID-19: Botswana scientist who sequenced Omicron variant worried - Here's why

Scientists are still trying to understand how the Omicron variant mutated so many times in a short space of time.

Sikhulile Moyo, the scientist who detected the new strain of COVID-19, said that the pace at which the Omicron variant accumulated its unusual pattern of mutations is cause for concern.

The scientists are also worried about the speed of the mutations, the evolution and how transmissible it may be, reported Financial Express.

Omicron has more than 50 mutations, and scientists have called it a big jump in the evolution of the virus. It's not clear if the variant causes more serious illness or can evade the protection of vaccines.

Dr Sikhulile Moyo was analysing COVID-19 samples in his lab in Botswana last week when he noticed they looked startlingly different from others.Within days, the world was ablaze with the news that the coronavirus had a new variant of concern - one that appears to be driving a dramatic surge in South Africa and offering a glimpse of where the pandemic might be headed.

New COVID-19 cases in South Africa have burgeoned from about 200 a day in mid-November to more than 16,000 on Friday. Omicron was detected over a week ago in the country's most populous province, Gauteng, and has since spread to all eight other provinces, Health Minister Joe Phaahla said.Even with the rapid increase, infections are still below the 25,000 new daily cases that South Africa reported in the previous surge, in June and July.Little is known about the new variant, but the spike in South Africa suggests it might be more contagious, said Moyo, the scientist who may have been the first to identify the new variant, though researchers in neighboring South Africa were close on his heels.

Omicron has more than 50 mutations, and scientists have called it a big jump in the evolution of the virus.It's not clear if the variant causes more serious illness or can evade the protection of vaccines. Phaahla noted that only a small number of people who have been vaccinated have gotten sick, mostly with mild cases, while the vast majority of those who have been hospitalized were not vaccinated.

But in a worrisome development, South African scientists reported that omicron appears more likely than earlier variants to cause reinfections among people who have already had a bout with COVID-19."Previous infection used to protect against delta, and now with omicron it doesn't seem to be the case," one of the researchers, Anne von Gottberg of the University of Witwatersrand, said at a World Health Organization briefing on Thursday.

While the study did not examine the protection offered by vaccination, von Gottberg said: "We believe that vaccines will still, however, protect against severe disease." The findings, posted online Thursday, are preliminary and haven't yet undergone scientific review.South Africa's hospitals are so far coping with the surge, even those in Gauteng province, which accounts for more than 70% of all new infections, Phaahla said.

The picture could change because most of those infected thus far have been younger people, who generally do not get as sick as older patients. But Moyo expressed hope that vaccines would continue to work against the variant."I have a lot of hope from the data that we see that those vaccinated should be able to have a lot of protection," he said.

That dovetails with what officials from WHO in Asia said Friday.While warning that cases could well rise quickly because of omicron, Dr Takeshi Kasai, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, said the measures used against the delta variant - which itself caused surges the world over - should remain at the core of the response.

"The positive news in all of this is that none of the information we have currently about omicron suggests we need to change the directions of our response," Kasai said.That means continuing to push for higher vaccination rates, abiding by social-distancing guidelines, and wearing masks, among other measures, said WHO Regional Emergency Director Dr Babatunde Olowokure.

While more than three dozen countries worldwide have reported omicron infections, the numbers so far are small outside of South Africa. That has led many countries to race to impose travel restrictions on visitors from southern Africa - a move WHO officials said may buy some time, though the agency previously urged against the closing of borders.

The travel restrictions have been severely criticized by South Africa, which says it is being punished for being transparent and moving so quickly to alert the world to omicron. WHO said it was notified by the country on Nov. 24 about the new variant."What we must reemphasise is that while our scientists and those in Botswana were the first to discover and report on the variant, no one knows where it originated," Phaahla said.

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With 7 new Omicron cases, Maharashtra's tally rises to 8

Samples of seven more people in Maharashtra test positive for Omicron Covid-19 variant. State's tally rises to seven, while nation tally reaches 12.

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 Covid-19 cluster grows in Chikkamagluru residential school, 69 test positive

As many as 69 people, including 59 students of a school in Karnataka’s Chikkamagaluru district tested positive for Covid-19 infection as the active caseload in the cluster rose further on Sunday, officials of the health and family welfare department confirmed.

The new cluster has been identified at Jawahar Navodaya School at Seegodu near Balehonnur after samples of 418 people, including students and staff, were tested after three students and four staff members had contracted Covid-19 on Friday. Another 36 people in the cluster contracted the infection on Saturday as well.

District Health Officer S N Umesh said another 26 samples returned with a positive result on Sunday. “With this, the total number of active cases in the cluster has risen to 69, including 59 students, with most of them being asymptomatic." Read more

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13 passengers found Covid-19 positive at Hyderabad airport: Official

We have intensified surveillance mechanism at international airport in Hyderabad. 970 passengers arrived in city since December 1. Upon screening with RT-PCR, 13 were found positive and they were immediately shifted to chosen facility: Dr Srinivas Rao, Telangana health director

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Gujarat: Congo returnee tests Covid positive, genome sequencing result awaited

A 48-year-old man from Limbdi town in Gujarat's Surendranagar district was admitted to the sub-district hospital in Limbdi town on Saturday evening after he tested positive for Covid-19.

Authorities said that they were treating him to be a suspected case of Omicron. “He had recently returned to his home after travelling to Congo. As per protocol, our health department screened him for Covid-19 and the test results returned positive even though he was asymptomatic. He has been admitted to the isolation ward in the sub-district hospital in Limbdi and his samples have been sent for genome sequencing,” Surendranagar district collector Amrutesh Aurangabadkar said.

The collector said that close contacts of the man are being traced and isolated even as genome sequencing results of his samples are awaited.

Omicron scare: Jamnagar NRI’s wife, brother-in-law test positive for Covid-19

A day after it was confirmed that an NRI visiting Jamnagar contracted the Omicron variant of Covid-19, his wife and brother-in-law also tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday and were shifted to a government hospital in the city.

The 72-year-old NRI, who is a citizen of Zimbabwe, was on Saturday confirmed to be the first case of Omicron variant in Gujarat. On Sunday, authorities said, “After it was confirmed on Saturday that the NRI had contracted the Omicron variant of the virus, our health department took samples of nine members of his family. Test results of the NRI’s 45-year-old wife and his 35-year-old brother-in-law returned positive on Sunday, while the rest tested negative,” Vijay Kharadi, the municipal commissioner of Jamnagar, told indianexpress.com. It is not yet confirmed if the wife and the brother-in-law have been infected with the Omicron variant.