Coronavirus live updates: All in-person classes allowed in Karnataka from November 8

Scientists identified a specific gene that doubles the risk of respiratory failure from Covid-19 and may go some way to explaining why some ethnic groups are more susceptible to severe disease than others. Researchers from the University of Oxford found that a higher-risk version of the gene most likely prevents the cells lining airways and the lungs from responding to the virus properly. About 60% of people with South Asian ancestry carry this version of the gene, compared with 15% of people with European heritage, according to the study published Thursday. Read full story

The rising number of cases of Covid-19 in Europe is of "grave concern" and the region could see another half a million deaths by early next year, the World Health Organization warned on Thursday. A WHO official blamed the soaring caseload on "insufficient vaccination coverage" and "the relaxation of public health and social measures." Read full story

The BMC’s 24 ward-level war rooms set up last year to smoothen Covidrelated hospitalisation and data, now have a new task: to straighten out the city’s vaccination rolls over the next 10 days. The war rooms have to call up three lakh people who took their first shot in a vaccination centre in Mumbai but didn't turn up for the second one.

AIIMS Patna Associate Professor, Dr Abhishek Shankar, said that air pollution is one of the greatest challenges and there have been discussions at global level for strategic solutions to this concern. This has become more important at present in view of positive correlation between air pollution and the spread of the coronavirus, he added.

In the last phase of return to offline classes, preprimary schools in Karnataka —nurseries, LKG and UKG-—will reopen on November 8 in all taluks where the test positivity rate is below 2%, according to the state department of public instruction’s notification on Thursday. With this, all classes will be fully functional in the state for the first time since March 2020.