Coronavirus Omicron Feb 16 Live Updates: Haryana Govt removes all existing COVID-19 restrictions in state

Days after clusters of recombinant Delta and Omicron variants of coronavirus were reported from across the world, a leading virologist said there was no need to panic at the moment. “Nothing to suggest at this moment that these recombinants have any additional advantage compared to Omicron,” Vinod Scaria, a scientist at the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, said on Twitter on Tuesday. Scaria said more epidemiological data was awaited as more genomes get reported from across the world. (PTI)

German vaccine maker BioNTech, which developed the first widely approved shot against COVID-19 together with Pfizer, unveiled plans on Wednesday to establish manufacturing facilities in Africa that would boost the availability of much-needed medicines on the continent. The modular design presented at a ceremony in Marburg, Germany, consists of shipping containers fitted with the equipment necessary to make the company's mRNA-based vaccine from start to finish, save for the final step of filling doses into bottles. (AP)

The entire eligible population in Goa has received both the doses of anti-coronavirus vaccines, a health official said on Wednesday. With this, Goa's Directorate of Health Services has decided to close down all its COVID-19 vaccination centres and integrate them into the normal immunisation programme, the official said. (PTI)

China's President Xi Jinping has told Hong Kong's leaders that their “overriding mission” was to stabilise and control a worsening COVID-19 outbreak, pro-Beijing media reported, as infected patients lay in beds outside overwhelmed hospitals. The daily tally of COVID infections in the global financial hub rose to more than 40 times the level at the start of February as health authorities reported a record 4,285 confirmed new infections on Wednesday, and another 7,000 preliminary positive cases. (Reuters)

Singapore will expand its quarantine-free travel programme to Hong Kong, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this month, its health ministry said on Wednesday, and will progressively add more destinations under the scheme. It will also restore and increase quotas under its vaccinated travel programme, which had been reduced in December to deal with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. (Reuters)

States/UTs must also continue monitoring the trajectory of cases and spread of infection on a daily basis. They may also the five-fold strategy of- Test- Track-Treat-Vaccination & adherence to Covid appropriate behavior: Union Health Secretary (ANI)

South Korea will distribute free coronavirus rapid test kits at schools and senior care facilities starting next week as it weathers an unprecedented wave of infections driven by the fast-moving omicron variant. Health officials on Wednesday reported its highest daily jump in coronavirus infections with 90,443 new cases, shattering the previous one-day record set on Tuesday by more than 33,000 cases. The figure represents more than a 20-fold increase from the levels seen in mid-January, when omicron emerged as the country's dominant strain, and some experts say the country could see daily cases of around 200,000 in March. (AP)

Chancellor Olaf Scholz is conferring with Germany's 16 state governors Wednesday to map a way out of coronavirus restrictions as official figures show new infections beginning to drift downward. Germany saw infections caused by the omicron variant, which is highly contagious but generally causes milder illness than previous variants, surge later than in several other European countries. Officials have attributed this to restrictions that include curbs on private gatherings, the closure of night clubs and requirements for people to show proof of vaccination or recovery to enter restaurants and bars. But other countries, including neighbouring Denmark, also have moved faster to lift restrictions, and there are growing calls for Germany to follow suit. (AP)

Antibodies produced by immune cells become steadily more formidable and precisely targeted against the SARS-CoV-2 virus for at least six months after COVID-19 vaccination, according to a study. The researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in the US assessed the antibody response to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in detail in people. The findings, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature, suggest that declining antibody levels in the months after vaccination primarily represent a shift to a sustainable immune response. The researchers also noted that even quite low levels of antibodies would continue to provide some protection against disease, as long as the virus does not change. (PTI)

The Chinese industrial hub Suzhou on Wednesday reported new COVID-19 cases for a second day, and authorities further restricted highway access while ramping up testing, having already detected cases of the highly contagious Omicron variant. The city in the eastern province of Jiangsu reported 18 domestically transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms for Tuesday, up from eight a day earlier, the data from the National Health Commission (NHC) showed. (Reuters)

Arunachal Pradesh's COVID-19 caseload rose to 64,110 on Wednesday after 44 more people tested positive for the infection, a senior health official said here. Of the 44 fresh cases, eight were registered from Namsai, seven from Changlang, six from the Capital Complex Region, four from Upper Siang and three each from West Kameng, Tawang and Longding district respectively, the official said. As many as 63,350 people have recuperated from the disease so far including, 117 on Tuesday, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said. The COVID-19 death toll in the frontier state remained at 294 as no fresh fatality was reported in the last 24 hours, the official said. (PTI)

The U.S. government said it faces “significant harm” if an a appeals court fails to reverse an injunction barring enforcement of President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for government workers, and that testing unvaccinated employees could cost up to $22 million a month. White House Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Jason Miller disclosed in an declaration cited late on Monday by the Justice Department that the government would be hurt on several fronts if it cannot enforce the vaccine requirements. (Reuters)

South Korea on Wednesday reported a daily record of 90,443 new coronavirus cases, as numbers nearly doubled within a week amid the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant. The record count for Tuesday marked a drastic surge from 57,177 a day before and brought total infections in the country since the pandemic began to 1,552,851. Deaths remain comparatively low, though, with 39 fatalities on Tuesday and a total of 7,202 so far, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). (Reuters)

Seven more people died from coronavirus in Singapore, which reported a record daily count of 19,420 cases. The infected included 241 people who came from abroad. Seven fatalities were recorded on Tuesday, taking the death toll from coronavirus complications to 913, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH). Till Tuesday, Singapore has recorded 497,997 COVID-19 cases. Rapid antigen tests detected 16,102 infections. (PTI)

Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi has said that higher education institutions should develop innovative ways to combat the novel Coronavirus and its various mutations which have dealt a severe blow to both the health and wealth of humans. Addressing the second convocation of Bodoland University at Kokrajhar on Tuesday, the Governor appealed to both the teaching and student fraternity of the university to work out an interface between the regional and global ideas to develop an innovative approach to combat the pandemic. (PTI)