Omicron Updates: 95% Eligible Population Vaccinated with 1st Dose; Maha Reports 25,425 Fresh Covid Cases

With the addition of 4,696 new COVID-19 cases over the last two days, the tally of infections in Maharashtra Nashik district has reached 4,59,328, an official said on Thursday. At least seven patients died of the infection in the last 48 hours, raising the toll to 8792, he said. As many as 5,385 patients have been discharged from hospitals since Wednesday, taking the count of recoveries to 4,33,215, leaving the district with 17,321 active cases, the official said.

The Covid-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh rose to 9,33,693 on Thursday with 9,532 new infections coming to light. Death toll increased to 10,597 as six patients succumbed since previous evening, the health department said. Positivity rate fell to 11.9 per cent from 12.3 per cent on Wednesday.The recovery count stood at 8,51,893 after 10,547 people were discharged from hospitals during the day. The state now has 71,203 active coronavirus patients.Bhopal and Indore, the two worst-affected cities of MP, registered 2,049 and 2,278 new cases, respectively. With 79,813 samples examined during the day, the number of coronavirus tests conducted in MP went up to 2,56,28,183.

West Bengal’s COVID-19 tally rose to 19,82,862 on Thursday as 3,608 people tested positive for the infection, 1,361 less than the previous day, a health bulletin said. Thirty-six more people succumbed to the infection, pushing the state’s death toll to 20,481. North 24 Parganas district recorded the highest number of new cases at 524, followed by 423 in Kolkata. Fourteen fatalities were reported in North 24 Parganas, followed by eight in Kolkata and four in South 24 Parganas. The number of active cases dipped by 11,644 to 55,725. A total of 19,06,656 people have recovered from the disease so far, including 15,216 in the last 24 hours.

India’s drug regulator Drugs Controller General of India’s (DCGI) on Thursday granted regular market approval for Covid-19 vaccines Covishield and Covaxin for use in the adult population subject to certain conditions, official sources said. The vaccines is likely to be capped at Rs 275 per dose plus an additional service charge of Rs 150, according to reports. The approval was granted under the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019. Under the conditions, the firms shall submit data of ongoing clinical trials and the vaccines to be supplied for programmatic setting.

The EU’s drug watchdog approved Pfizer’s coronavirus pill on Thursday, making it the first oral antiviral treatment for the disease to be authorised in Europe. Studies showed the drug called Paxlovid reduces hospitalisation and death in patients at risk of severe Covid, and may also be effective against the Omicron variant. Pills are seen as a potentially huge step in ending the pandemic as they can be taken at home, rather than in hospital. “Paxlovid is the first antiviral medicine to be given by mouth that is recommended in the EU for treating Covid-19,” the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement.

Schools and colleges in Tamil Nadu will reopen on February 1, the state government said on Thursday. The night curfew too has been lifted from tomorrow. The number of guests at weddings has been fixed at 100, while only 50 are allowed for funerals. Places of worship will be allowed to remain open on all days.

Mumbai on Thursday recorded 1,384 fresh cases of COVID-19, down from 1,858 a day ago, while 12 more people died due to complications related to the infection, the city civic body said. With this, the overall number of COVID-19 cases in the Maharashtra capital rose to 10,41,747, while the toll increased to 16,581, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a bulletin. Out of the 12 coronavirus patients who died in the last 24 hours, 11 were above 60 years of age, it said.On Wednesday, the city had recorded 1,858 coronavirus infections and 13 deaths. The city has been reporting fewer than 2,000 cases for the last four days.

95% of eligible population have been vaccinated with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine. Meanwhile, India’s cumulative vaccination coverage has crossed 164.35 crore.

UT of Jammu and Kashmir reports 4,959 new Covid-19 and 7 deaths today; Active cases at 46,657.

As many as 9,672 Omicron samples were found in January in genome sequencing constituting 75 per cent of the total sequenced samples of COVID-19, a huge rise from the December figure of 1,292, the government said on Thursday. Addressing a press conference, NCDC Director Dr S K Singh said sub-lineages of Omicron – BA.1 and BA.2 were found in sequenced samples while BA.3 has not been found yet. “We were getting more samples of BA.1 earlier mostly found in travellers but now we are seeing that BA.2 has become more prevalent in the community,” Singh said.

Delhi reports 4,291 COVID cases, 9,397 recoveries, and 34 deaths in the last 24 hours

Active cases: 33,175 Today’s positivity rate: 9.56%

Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that he has tested Covid-19 positive. He requested all those who have come in contact with him to take precautions.

The Home Ministry on Thursday announced that Covid containment measures have been extended till Feb 28.

Andhra Pradesh reports 13,374 fresh COVID19 cases in last 24 hours; Active cases are 1,09,493.

The Union Health Ministry warned of early indication of plateauing of Covid-19 cases in certain states, adding that the trend needs to be observed and required precautions need to be maintained. More than 90 per cent of the active cases are under home isolation, indicating mild to moderate clinical severity of the disease. Eleven states have over 50,000 active Covid-19 cases with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala reporting over three lakh active infections.

There’re over 3 lakh active cases in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala; and over one lakh in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. We’re in touch with the states regarding containment activities. As of Jan 26, 551 districts were reporting case positivity rate of over 5%: Health Ministry

64% deaths in Delhi has taken place in population who were unvaccinated or those with comorbities, the Health Ministry said. It also added that 9,672 Omicron variant cases were detected in the country while 1,578 Delta variant cases were detected after sequencing.

The union government is working on a model for staggered opening of schools for physical classes following all COVID-19 related protocols, sources said on Thursday. Schools have been closed in most parts of the country for physical classes after the emergence of the new Omicron variant of the virus. Students have been mostly attending online classes, barring some brief periods in between, for almost two years now due to the coronavirus pandemic. “As parents have been demanding for the opening of schools, the union government is working on a model for staggered opening of schools following all Covid related protocols,” a highly-placed source said.

95 percent first dose vaccination coverage and 74 percent second dose coverage in the country so far. 97.03 lakh eligible population has received ‘precaution dose’: Ministry of Health on Covid-19 vaccination, the Health Ministry said.