India reported 188 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, showed government data on Wednesday morning. No new death was reported and the death count stood at 5,30,696. There are 3,468 active cases in the country. Authorities are currently on alert due to a rise in cases in China and elsewhere. Hospitals across the country conducted a drill on Tuesday to assess their preparedness to tackle any such spike in cases here.
Here are the Coronavirus Highlights from today:
Those aged 60+ are eligible for free dose at government facilities, while it costs Rs 400 for all age groups at private centres
The Odisha government is prepared to tackle any situation if there is a resurgence of coronavirus in the state, state Health minister Naba Kishore Das said on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters about the preparedness of Odisha in view of Omicron sub-variant BF.7 creating havoc in certain countries, Mr Das said he held a review meeting during the day on surveillance and testing.
"If there is sudden resurgence of Covid, it is not about having Plan A or Plan B. We are already prepared under the able leadership of Naveen Patnaik... Our government was earlier praised for its handling of the pandemic and for supplying Oxygen to different states. We have instructed all Medical Colleges, including MKCG, VIMSAR and SCB Medical College, regarding readiness of 15 oxygen beds and 5 ICU beds," the minister said.
A woman and her six-year-old daughter, who returned from China via Colombo, tested positive for COVID-19 at the Madurai airport in Tamil Nadu, a senior health official said today. The woman, hailing from Virudhunagar, and her daughter were subjected to RT-PCR test at the airport when they landed on Tuesday and the results turned positive for coronavirus, the official said. Both are under home isolation in Virudhunagar. Their samples would be sent to the state lab for whole genomic sequencing.
Bihar has witnessed a more than 10-fold rise in active COVID-19 cases, since last weekend, according to figures released by the state health department. The state, which had zero active case till Sunday, now has 14, with Gaya accounting for 12 of these. Notably, Gaya is witnessing an influx of pilgrims from abroad who are heading for Bodh Gaya, less than 20 km away, to attend the discourses of the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan spiritual leader is in Bihar after a gap of two years. On Monday, the international Buddhist pilgrimage centre had reported five COVID-19 cases, all of them foreign nationals. In addition, one person each has tested positive for coronavirus in Darbhanga and Patna.