A man receives a dose of Covid-19 vaccine at Anand Vihar Metro Station amid concern over rising Omicron cases, in New Delhi, on Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022. Coronavirus Omicron India LIVE News: As India’s vaccination drive completed a year on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi saluted “each and every individual” associated with it and said the programme added great strength to the fight against Covid-19. “Today we mark 1 year of vaccination drive. I salute each and every individual who is associated with the vaccination drive. Our vaccination programme has added great strength to the fight against Covid-19. It has led to saving lives and thus protecting livelihoods,” he tweeted.
The drive began on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2. Till date, 156.76 crore vaccines have been administered and more 92 per cent of the adult population have received at least one dose, according to health ministry officials. They also said over 68 per cent of them have been fully vaccinated, PTI reported.
India reported 2,71,202 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, marginally higher than Saturday’s infections, data updated by the Union Ministry of Health showed on Sunday morning. The positivity rate was also lower at 16.28 per cent from 16.66 per cent. The country also recorded 314 Covid-19 related fatalities in the last 24 hours, which have taken the death toll to 4,86,066. As many as 1,38,331 people recovered from the infection and the number of active cases now stand at 15,50,377. A total of 7,743 Omicron cases have been detected so far across the country—an increase of 28.17 per cent since Saturday.
Bengaluru police checks vehicles during the weekend curfew imposed by the Karnataka Government. (Express photo by Jithendra M)
Seventy per cent of India's adults have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 while 93 per cent received the first jab, said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya while launching a postage stamp on indigenously developed vaccine Coviaxin to mark one year of the inoculation drive.
The drive was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Addressing the commemorative postage stamp release event through a video link, Mandaviya said it is a proud moment for Indians and the entire world is amazed by the country's Covid inoculation drive. "India has been able to achieve the milestone of administering over 156 crore doses despite such a huge population and diversity," he said. --PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday the Centre’s vaccination drive helped the country fight against Covid-19 as programme completed a year.
Tamil Nadu on Sunday declared schools to be shut due to an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the state, ANI reported. The exams, which were supposed to be held on January 19, now remains postponed.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday sought to nix concerns over 'fewer' Covid testing in the national capital, saying the diagnostic tests being conducted in the city is three times the number recommended by ICMR. All those who need to undergo testing are being tested, he said. According to the Centre's new guidelines, asymptomatic patients do not need to undergo a test. Also, contacts of laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 patients do not require a test unless they have comorbidities or are aged above 60.
Jain said these new guidelines on testing have come after thoughtful consideration. Delhi conducted 67,624 tests on Friday and 79,578 on Thursday. The city on Thursday reported 28,867 Covid-19 cases, the sharpest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic, after the city conducted 98,832 tests on Wednesday. (PTI)
The union territory of Puducherry added 1,160 fresh coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours raising the overall tally to 1,37,710 with the test positivity rate shooting up to 43.66 per cent, a top Health department official said on Sunday. The number of active cases in the union territory rose to 7,600, Director of Health and Family Welfare Services G Sriramulu said in a release.
The 1,160 new cases were identified at the end of the examination of 2,657 samples in the last 24 hours ending 10 AM on Sunday and were spread over Puducherry (974), Karaikal (129), Mahe (40) and Yanam (17). The active cases climbed to 7,602 with 133 undergoing treatment in hospitals while the remaining 7,469 patients were in home isolation. The test positivity rate stood at 43.66 percent as against Saturday's 51.75 per cent while the fatality and recovery rates were 1.37 per cent and 92.96 per cent respectively, he said. (PTI)
Delhi is likely to report around 17,000 Covid-19 cases with case positivity expected to decline today, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said. About 67,000 tests were done on Saturday, Jain added.
Goa's Covid-19 case positivity rate rose sharply to 38.16 per cent on Saturday as the coastal state reported 3,274 new infections, taking the tally to 2,07,243, the state health department said. Four persons died due to COVID-19, which raised the toll in Goa to 3,550.
The number of recoveries rose to 1,83,615 after 1,789 more patients were discharged after treatment on Saturday, leaving the coastal state with 20,078 active cases. With 8,578 new tests, the total number of samples examined so far for coronavirus in Goa has gone up to 17,23,638, an official said. (PTI)
The Arignar Anna Zoological Park, also known as the Vandalur zoo, has been shut after 80 employees tested positive for Covid-19.
V Karunapriya, the director of the zoo, while confirming it said, “We had organised RT-PCR tests for our workers on Thursday because of the rapid rise in Covid-19 cases across the state. The zoo keepers are in close proximity to the animals. The results came back on Saturday and around 80 people have tested positive.” She added that the patients are asymptomatic and are being treated. Read more
Iranian state television said Saturday that three Iranian citizens have died after they were infected with omicron, the new, more easily spread variant of the coronavirus. Iran first detected the omicron variant in mid-December but this was the first time fatalities were reported. The TV report quoted Mohammad Hashemi, an official in the country's health ministry, as also saying that a fourth person who was a confirmed case of omicron was in critical condition. He did not elaborate.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Covid-19 has killed more than 132,000 people in Iran, the worst fatality rate in the Middle East. On Aug. 24 alone, 709 people died of the illness. The number of deaths has decreased in recent months due to the vaccination, experts say. Iran has stepped up vaccinations in recent weeks and now has reported that more than 53 million Iranians have received their second shot, and 12 million have received the third shot or booster. Iran has a population of about 85 million. When hard-line President Ebrahin Raisi took over in late August, only 7 million Iranians had been vaccinated. (AP)
Odisha on Sunday recorded 11,177 new Covid-19 cases, 321 more than the previous day, with the tally rising to 11,33,912, a health department bulletin said. The daily infections crossed the 11,000-mark for the first time since May 26 last year as 11,623 cases were registered on that day. The death toll mounted to 8,481 as three more persons from Sundargarh, Ganjam and Nayagarh districts succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said. (PTI)
Beijing has reported its first local omicron infection, according to state media, weeks before the Winter Olympic Games are due to start. The infected person lives and works in the city's northwestern district of Haidian and had no travel history outside of Beijing for the past two weeks. The individual experienced symptoms on Thursday and was tested on Friday for COVID-19, officials said in a news conference Saturday during which they confirmed the infection.
The infection comes less than three weeks before the Winter Olympic Games' opening ceremony on Feb 4., and around two weeks before the start of Lunar New Year celebrations in China. So far, multiple cities in China have reported omicron infections, including Shanghai, the western city of Xi'an, cities in southern Guangdong province such as Zhuhai and Zhongshan, and the city of Tianjin, which is 30 minutes from Beijing by high-speed rail.
Officials across the country have urged residents to stay in their cities for the new year, instead of traveling back to their hometowns. China has adopted a strict 'zero-Covid' policy, with authorities locking down residential compounds and even entire cities such as Xi'an when a local outbreak has been discovered in an effort to stamp out community transmission. (AP)
India on Sunday completed one year since it began its mega vaccination drive against Covid-19. The drive began on January 16 last year with healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2. Till date, 156.76 crore vaccines have been administered and more 92 per cent of the adult population have received at least one dose, according to health ministry officials. They also said over 68 per cent of them have been fully vaccinated, PTI reported.
Ladakh's coronavirus caseload increased to 23,209 on Sunday as 130 more people tested positive for the virus, officials said. Ninety of the new cases were reported from Leh district and 40 from Kargil district, they said.
According to the officials, the Covid-19 death toll in the Union territory stands at 222 with 164 fatalities in Leh and 58 in Kargil. The number of active Covid-19 cases in Ladakh has gone up to 741 with 635 in Leh and 106 in Kargil, the officials said.
Fifty-eight patients were discharged from hospitals in Leh during the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries in Ladakh to 22,246, they said. The officials said the total positivity rate of Ladakh stands at 3.8 per cent. (PTI)
A year since the vaccination drive against Covid-19 was launched in India, Maharashtra has administered 14.29 crore doses till January 15, contributing to 9.13 per cent of the nation’s total tally. It ranks after Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest vaccination coverage so far.
As of January 15, 8.46 crore people have been vaccinated with first doses and 5.79 crore with second doses in the state. Also, 3.2 lakh of them have taken booster shots. Over 90 per cent of the eligible population has been inoculated with one dose and 63 per cent have been fully vaccinated in Maharashtra. Read more
India on Sunday completed one year of its Covid-19 vaccination drive, by administering over 156 crore vaccines till date.
Australia has likely neared the peak of its Omicron wave, authorities said on Saturday, but warned daily infections will linger near record levels for “the next few weeks” after more than 100,000 cases were reported for a fourth straight day.
Having limited the spread of the coronavirus through tough restrictions earlier in the pandemic, Australia is now suffering record caseloads from the Omicron variant. Most parts of the country have shifted to a strategy of living with the virus as they reached higher vaccination rates. Read more
On a day the elections to four municipal corporations in West Bengal were postponed in view of the rising Covid-19 cases, several transit points for Gangasagar Mela saw jostling crowds, some without masks and some dangling them on their chins. The authorities though, said they tried their best to enforce the curbs and protocols in place. Sailing across the Muriganga river from Sagardwip, scores of devotees arrived at Harwood Point on Saturday after taking the holy dip on Makar Sankranti. Vessels loaded with returning pilgrims docked at ghats 2 and 3 at Harwood Point. Read more
Fresh coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu reached the grim milestone of 24,000 infections in a single day and the new cases in Chennai neared the 9,000-mark. The State on Saturday recorded 23,989 new cases and 11 fatalities. This took the total number of cases reported so far to 29,15,948 and the death toll to 36,967. On Friday, there were 23,459 cases and 26 fatalities. Chennai recorded 8,963 new infections. Read more