Amid rising concern over the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the Centre on Friday said it anticipates the severity of the new strain to be low in the country given the fast pace of vaccination and high exposure to the Delta variant. The government also said a decision on a Covid vaccine booster dose will be taken on the basis of scientific guidance from experts. Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has ordered a probe into test reports of the 66-year-old South African national, who tested positive for Omicron variant, that allowed him to leave the country.
Madurai District Collector Dr S Aneesh Sekhar on Friday said that the district will ban unvaccinated residents from entering 18 public places, including markets, hotels, shopping malls, movie theatres, hotels, marriage halls, TASMAC and PDS shops from December 12.
The decision comes at a time when two Omicron cases have been identified in the country and two samples from Tamil Nadu have been sent for genome testing.
On November 18, Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine under the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939 had issued a circular making Covid vaccination mandatory to enter public places. These were atteibuted to be measures undertaken to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
In view of the Omicron variant threat, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued a set of home quarantine guidelines for foreign passengers arriving in Mumbai.
According to a BMC order issued on Friday, the CEO of Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) will send a to BMC's Disaster Management Cell every 24 hours with details of passengers coming from high risk countries.
This list will be passed on to Ward War Room team who will take daily health updates from passenger, send doctor for check-up and conduct RT-PCR test on the seventh day.
The Ward War Room team will also inform the concerned housing society about the traveller.
A UK returnee has tested positive for Covid-19 in Ahmedabad. The samples of the traveller have been sent for genome sequencing to ascertain if the person carried the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
India registered 8,603 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the health ministry bulletin on Saturday.
At least 8,190 people recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the total recoveries to 3,40,53,856. The recovery rate currently stands at 98.35 per cent.
India's Active caseload currently stands at 99,974. Active cases account for less than 1 per cent of total cases, currently at 0.29 per cent. Active cases are also at the lowest since March 2020.
The daily positivity rate (0.69 per cent) is less than 2 per cent for the last 61 days. Weekly positivity rate (0.81 per cent) less than 1 per cent for the last 20 days.
On the vaccination front, 126.53 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered under nationwide vaccination drive.
So far, 64.60 crore Covid-19 tests have been conducted in the country.
Sources in the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) say the date of a meeting on booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine is yet to be fixed. But with the latest on the WHO SAGE meeting, the group is also looking at global evidence on a third shot because of the Omicron threat.
Renewed discussions on children’s vaccination and booster guidelines will need to be done in the light of Omicron cases in India.
South African experts have expressed concern about the rising number of Covid-19 infections among young children, even as the country recorded a further 16,055 infections and 25 deaths overnight on Friday.
"We have always seen children not being heavily affected by the Covid epidemic in the past (and) not having many admissions (to hospitals). In the third wave, we saw more admissions in children under five and in teenagers who were 15 to 19. "Now, at the start of this fourth wave, we see quite a sharp increase across all age groups, but particularly in the under-fives," said Dr Waasila Jassat of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) at a media briefing by the Health Ministry on Friday.
"As expected, the incidence is still lowest in children. However, the incidence in those under five is now second-highest and second only to the incidence in those over 60. "The trend that we are seeing now that is different from what we saw before is the particular increase in hospital admissions in children under five years,” Jassat added. Dr Michelle Groome, also from the NICD, said more research would be done to investigate the reasons behind this phenomenon. “It is still very early on in the wave.
A woman who returned to Chandigarh from South Africa two days ago allegedly broke home quarantine and went to a five-star hotel here, prompting authorities on Friday to order strict action against her for violating Covid protocols for travellers, especially those arriving from "at-risk" countries where Omicron variant has been detected.
After returning from South Africa, the woman reached a housing society in Sector 48-B here on December 1, according to an official order.
On December 2, she broke the quarantine protocol and went to a five-star hotel here in the evening and later left the hotel late in the night to go back home, it said.
She has allegedly violated the home quarantine Covid protocol for international travellers from "at-risk" countries.
The Health Department authorities here ordered that strict action be taken against her for violating the quarantine protocol. (PTI)
As the threat of Omicron variant of coronavirus rises, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) will hold a meeting on December 7, where discussions would be held on the effectiveness and safety of booster doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
The Union Health Ministry said while there is no evidence to suggest that existing vaccines do not work on the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, some of the mutations reported may decrease the efficacy of the jabs.
The ministry, however, underscored that definitive evidence for new variant's increased remission and immune evasion is awaited.
The ministry has issued a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the Omicron variant of coronavirus which has been designated by WHO as a 'variant of concern' (VoC). Two cases of the new variant were reported in Karnataka on Thursday.
From the list of FAQs, the ministry, answering whether the existing vaccines work against the Omicron variant, said, "While there is no evidence to suggest that existing vaccines do not work on Omicron, some of the mutations reported on spike gene may decrease the efficacy of existing vaccines."
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