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Regular commercial international flights will not resume till January 31, the government announced on Thursday, amid a global alarm over the new Omicron variant of coronavirus. The ones under the "air bubble" agreements, however, will carry on as before.
International flights were earlier scheduled to resume from December 15. However, with the outbreak of the new 'Omicron' variant in several nations, the country has now put brakes on its plans for international flights resumption.
Extending the suspension on international flights till January 31, aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a circular that this restriction shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flight specifically approved by it.
India recorded 8,503 new Covid cases on Thursday, taking the country's infection tally to 3,46,74,744. There are 94,943 active cases, which account for for less than one per cent of the total cases.
Here are the Highlights on Coronavirus cases in India:
Dec 11, 2021 04:14 (IST)
Switzerland Approves Covid Vaccination Of Children Aged Between 5 And 11
The Swiss medicines agency Swissmedic on Friday approved the vaccination of children aged between five and 11 with Pfizer-Biontech's Comirnaty vaccine.
"Clinical trial results show that the vaccine is safe and effective in this age group," it said in a statement.
The Comirnaty vaccine is administered in two doses of ten microgrammes three weeks apart.
An ongoing clinical trial of more than 1,500 people "shows that the Covid-19 vaccine offers almost complete protection against serious illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 5 to 11-year-olds", it said.
Dec 10, 2021 22:42 (IST)
Over 132 crore Covid vaccine doses administered in India so far: Government
The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 132 crore on Friday, the Union health ministry said.
More than 68 lakh (68,63,955) vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm. The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late night, the ministry said.
The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) started from February 2.
The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified comorbid conditions.
The country launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1. The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1.
Dec 10, 2021 22:31 (IST)
Rajasthan reports 24 new COVID-19 cases
Rajasthan reported 24 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, pushing the infection tally in the state to 9,55,046.
Ten cases were detected in Alwar, seven in Jaipur, four in Udaipur, two in Jhunjhunu and one case was found in Jodhpur, according to an official report.
In Alwar, nine out of the 10 cases are from Khedli block. Health officials have initiated a contact-tracing exercise in the area.
With the new infections, the number of active cases in the state has increased to 269.
Dec 10, 2021 22:19 (IST)
Dec 10, 2021 21:52 (IST)
Delhi reports 41 new COVID-19 cases
Delhi has recorded 41 new COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours, said the state government on Friday.
With this, the count of COVID-19 cases in the national capital has gone up to 14,41,610.
The positivity rate for the day stands at 0.07 per cent. A total of 59,763 samples were tested during the last 24 hours.
During the last 24 hours, 57 people recovered from the infection, taking the total number of recoveries in the national capital to 14,16,140.
A total of 25,100 people have lost their lives to the deadly virus, with zero deaths reported during the last 24 hours.
There are currently 370 active COVID-19 cases in the state, out of which 169 are in home isolation.
Dec 10, 2021 20:41 (IST)
Maharashtra's Thane district crosses 1-crore COVID-19 vaccination mark
The number of vaccine doses administered in Thane district in Maharashtra has crossed the 1-crore mark, and collector Rajesh Narvekar on Friday hailed health teams for the hard work put in, including trekking 16 kilometres in one case to reach a remote village.
The 1-crore mark was achieved on Thursday, a release from the district administration said, adding that 60,61,648 people have been given the first dose and 39,75,000 have received both jabs.
"A medical team from Thane Zilla Parishad trekked 16 kilometres on a difficult route of the Sahyadri range to reach Dapurmal village under Vihigaon sub centre in Kasara to vaccinate people there. There is no motorable road," Thane ZP CEO Bhausaheb Dangde told PTI.
"There are 246 people in this village and 138 of them were eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, including two pregnant women and three lactating mothers. The ZP team also held a health camp in the village during their visit," he added.
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Dec 10, 2021 20:27 (IST)
Goa reports 37 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours
Goa has reported 37 new cases of COVID-19 during the last 24 hours, as per a health bulletin by the state government issued on Friday.
The positivity rate for the day stands at 1.32 per cent. A total of 2,796 samples were tested during the last 24 hours.
During the same duration, 35 people recovered from the infection, taking the total number of recoveries in the state to 1,75,443.
A total of 3,482 deaths have been reported in the state so far, with zero deaths being reported during the last 24 hours. There are currently 450 active COVID-19 cases in the state.
Dec 10, 2021 20:16 (IST)
Mumbai records 192 COVID-19 cases, one death
Mumbai reported 192 new coronavirus infections and one fatality on Friday, a civic official said. It took the tally of COVID-19 cases in the country's financial capital to 7,64,854 and deaths due to the pandemic to 16,355.
The day before the city had logged 218 new COVID-19 cases and one death.
The city now has 1,773 active COVID-19 cases after 183 patients were discharged from hospitals.
The total of recovered patients thus rose to 7,44,149 while the city's recovery rate is 97 per cent.
Mumbai witnessed an increase in the overall growth rate of cases to 0.03 per cent from 0.02 per cent the day before for the period between December 3 to December 9.
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Dec 10, 2021 19:56 (IST)
Dec 10, 2021 19:37 (IST)
Active Covid cases in Andhra Pradesh fall below 2,000
Active coronavirus cases on Friday fell below the 2,000 mark to 1,989 in Andhra Pradesh after nine months.
The state reported 142 fresh infections, 188 recoveries and two deaths in 24 hours ending 9 am on Friday, the latest bulletin said.
It said the total Covid-19 positives now rose to 20,74,552 and recoveries to 20,58,101.
The deaths touched 14,462, the bulletin added.
Guntur district reported 28, East Godavari 21, West Godavari and Anantapuramu 17 each, Chittoor 14, Krishna 13 and Visakhapatnam 10 fresh cases. The remaining six districts added less than seven new cases each. Apart from Krishna, Chittoor district had one fresh Covid-19 death in a day.
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Dec 10, 2021 19:06 (IST)
Dharavi resident who returned from Tanzania tests positive for Omicron; 11th case in Maharashtra
A resident of Dharavi area who recently returned from Tanzania was found to have contracted Omicron infection on Friday, taking the number of cases of the new coronavirus variant in Maharashtra to 11, officials said.
The 49-year-old man was asymptomatic and was isolated before he could mingle in the community, said a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official.
The man landed in Mumbai from Tanzania on December 4 and his samples were sent for genome sequencing when he tested positive for coronavirus.
With this, the number of Omicron-infected patients in Mumbai rose to three. One case had been found in neighbouring Thane district.
Seven cases have been found in Pune district, but deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said earlier in the day that five out of them have now tested negative for the infection.
Dec 10, 2021 18:23 (IST)
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Dec 10, 2021 18:02 (IST)
Dec 10, 2021 17:31 (IST)
Dec 10, 2021 17:09 (IST)
Regular meetings are being organised to keep a watch on global scenario and Covid scene in India with a focus on Omicron. We need help to not spread panic. District level restrictions to be implemented where positivity over 5%: Balram Bhargava, DG, ICMR
Dec 10, 2021 16:47 (IST)
Dec 10, 2021 16:29 (IST)
Dec 10, 2021 16:22 (IST)
25 Omicron cases in India, "mild symptoms" for all, says Centre
Dec 10, 2021 16:19 (IST)
13.3 crore yet to get first jab in India: Centre
India was in 17th position in terms of proportion of population fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as on October 31, Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar told the Lok Sabha on Friday.
In a written reply to a query in the Lower House, she said that as of December 8, around 13.3 crore beneficiaries against an estimated adult population of 93.9 crore are yet to get the first dose of Covid vaccine.
Of those who got the first dose, 33.6 crore -- 17.2 crore male, 16.4 crore female and 90,000 of ''other gender'' -- are yet to receive the second jab, Ms Pawar said.
The top 10 major countries (with an estimated population of more than five crore) by the share of fully vaccinated people were South Korea, Japan, Italy, France, the UK, Germany, the USA, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico, the minister said quoting data from www.ourworldindata.org.
She said that 53 per cent of the eligible adult population has received both doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of December 8. Adequate quantity of vaccine doses has been made available to all states and Union Territories, Ms Pawar added.
Dec 10, 2021 16:08 (IST)
Dec 10, 2021 16:07 (IST)
COVID-19: Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation vaccinates people at weddings
In an effort to ensure that people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a team of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's (AMC) health department carried out random checks for vaccination certificates at various wedding venues on Thursday.
Eligible beneficiaries, who had not taken their vaccine doses, were even inoculated at the venue amid the wedding festivities.
Urban Healthcare Centre doctor Dr Falgun Vaidya, who was among the team of doctors on COVID-19 duty, said, "To complete the second dose coverage, we are checking certificates and vaccinating people here at the spot only. We have 70-80 urban healthcare centres. Prior to this vaccination drive, we collected all the data of weddings taking place in the town."
The teams reached various wedding venues like party plots and community halls on Thursday.
Dec 10, 2021 15:43 (IST)
Amid Omicron scare, railways would do due diligence before resuming providing bedrolls
Amid the scare of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha on Friday that the national transporter would do due diligence before resuming providing bedrolls to passengers in trains.
Amid the scare of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Rajya Sabha on Friday that the national transporter would do due diligence before resuming providing bedrolls to passengers in trains.
Dec 10, 2021 14:25 (IST)
Gujarat Omicron Patient's Wife, Brother-In-Law Test Positive
The wife and brother-in-law of an NRI man, who had been found infected with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 here in Gujarat a week back, were also detected with the new strain, officials of the Jamnagar Municipal Corporation (JMC) said on Friday.
With this, Gujarat now has three patients of Omicron, classified as a 'variant of concern' by the WHO after it was detected in Africa last month.
Dec 10, 2021 13:31 (IST)
24 new Covid cases in Ladakh
Twenty-four more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Ladakh, bringing the infection tally to 21,773, while the number of active cases in the Union Territory has reached 237, officials said.
Ladakh has recorded 215 coronavirus-related deaths -- 157 in Leh and 58 in Kargil -- since the outbreak of the pandemic last year, they said.
Dec 10, 2021 12:40 (IST)
The first-semester exam for both undergraduate and postgraduate levels will be held in February, VC Sonali Chakrabarty Banerjee said
Dec 10, 2021 11:36 (IST)
Contact of Omicron-infected person in Rajasthan tests positive for Covid in South Delhi
A woman contact of an Omicron case in Rajasthan has been found COVID-19 positive in Delhi and is being shifted to the Lok Nayak Hospital, officials said on Friday.
Dec 10, 2021 08:37 (IST)
Dec 10, 2021 05:54 (IST)
Omicron: All 9 patients in Rajasthan test negative, discharged from hospital
All the nine people in Rajasthan who were found infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus were discharged from a government hospital here on Thursday after they tested negative for the infection twice, Health Minister Parsadi Lal Meena said.
Their reports for blood, CT scan and all other tests are normal and they have been advised to remain in home quarantine for a week, he said. Dr Sudhir Bhandari, principal of Sawai Mansingh Medical College, said research on the Omicron variant is currently underway.
"The spread of this variant is rapid but it is not as fatal as the Delta variant," he said.
Meanwhile, 38 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Rajasthan, officials said.
Jaipur reported the highest number of fresh cases at 18.
With this, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state increased to 260, the officials said.
Dec 10, 2021 05:27 (IST)
US Authorizes Pfizer Covid Booster For People Aged 16 And 17
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday expanded authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid booster to include 16- and 17-year-olds, amid growing concern over the Omicron variant's ability to overcome immunity conferred by two shots.
The FDA's decision comes a day after the companies released the results of lab tests that showed three doses appeared effective against Omicron, while two doses were probably not enough to stop infection -- though may still prevent severe disease.
Even before Omicron emerged, there had been concerns about waning immunity over time, and the US and many other northern hemisphere countries are experiencing winter waves driven by the currently dominant Delta strain.
