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Tamil Nadu has reported its first case of Omicron BA.4 variant after a teenager was tested Covid-19 positive recently and the health department on Saturday appealed members of the public 'not to panic' following the identification of the new variant. Tamil Nadu Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said the 19-year-old woman detected with the new variant was visited by top health officials on Friday.
TheCovid-19 tally in Madhya Pradesh reached 10,42,167 on Saturday after the detection of 43 cases, while the death toll remained unchanged at 10,735 as no one succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, an official said.
Karnataka on Saturday recorded 155 freshCovid-19 cases taking the total infection count to 39,50,378, the state health department said. There were zero fatalities due toCovid-19 in the state on the day. Of the total infections, Bengaluru urban district contributed 150 while Dakshina Kannada reported three and Tumakuru and Davangere reported one each.
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The White House is planning for “dire” contingencies that could include rationing supplies of vaccines and treatments this fall if Congress doesn't approve more money for fightingCovid-19.
Spain on Saturday easedCovidentry rules for unvaccinated tourists from outside the European Union, in a boost for the key tourism sector ahead of the peak summer holidays.
Until now travellers from outside the bloc -- including Spain's main tourism market Britain -- could only enter with proof of vaccination or recovery fromCovid-19.
But as of Saturday visitors from outside of the EU will also be allowed to enter Spain with a negativeCovidtest result, the transport ministry said in a statement.
(Credit: Reuters Photo)
(AFP Photo)
(Credit: AFP Photo)
The UK's coronavirus alert level has been reduced from four to three asCovid-19 cases continue to fall, even as two rare types of the Omicron variant sub-types have been reclassified as variants of concern.
The health authorities said on Friday that the current BA.2 driven Omicron wave is “subsiding” but it is expected the number of cases will increase due to BA.4 and BA.5 sub-types, which the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has elevated in classification to monitor their growth.
The agency said it will continue to analyse the rise as the full impact of the sub-types remains “uncertain”.
“The reclassification of these variants as variants of concern reflects emerging evidence on the growth of BA.4 and BA.5 internationally and in the UK,” said Dr Meera Chand, Director of Clinical and Emerging Infections at UKHSA.
President Joe Biden and his new South Korean counterpart agreed on Saturday to hold bigger military drills and deploy more U.S. weapons if necessary to deter North Korea, while offering to sendCovid-19 vaccines and potentially meet Kim Jong Un.
Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol said their countries' decades-old alliance needed to develop not only to face North Korean threats but to keep the Indo-Pacific region "free and open" and protect global supply chains.
The two leaders are meeting in Seoul for their first diplomatic engagement since the South Korean president's inauguration 11 days ago. The encounter between allies was clouded by intelligence showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is prepared to conduct nuclear or missile tests.
Shanghai's central Jingan district, a key commercial area of the Chinese financial hub, said on Saturday it will require all supermarkets and shops to shut and residents to stay home until at least Tuesday.
The district plans to carry out Covid mass testing from Sunday until Tuesday, it said on its official WeChat account.
The use of all exit permits previously given to residents that allowed them to leave their homes will be suspended, the district added without saying why.
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New Zealand have reported no newCovid-19 cases among players and staff before their warm-up match against English county side Sussex, the country's cricket board (NZC) said on Saturday.
Thousands ofCovid-negative Beijing residents were relocated to quarantine hotels overnight due to a handful of infections, as the capital begins to take more extreme control measures resembling virus-hit Shanghai.
Beijing has been battling its worst outbreak since the pandemic started. The Omicron variant has infected over 1,300 since late April, leading city restaurants, schools and tourist attractions to be closed indefinitely.
China's strategy to achieve zeroCovidcases includes strict border closures, lengthy quarantines, mass testing and rapid, targeted lockdowns.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Saturday said that initial reports from a whole-genome sequencing lab have indicated the possibility of BA.4. Omicron variant in the state.
Confirmation of the same will be obtained after the report from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). If confirmed, this will be the second case of BA.4.Omicron after a case of the variant was confirmed in Telangana on Friday.
(Reuters Photo)
(AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS)
Beijing reported 63 new domestically transmittedCovid-19 infections during the 24 hours to 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday, a disease control official at the Chinese capital said.
Of the infections, 56 were found in controlled areas and seven during community screening tests, Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director at Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, told a news briefing.
The city has recorded 1,399Covid infections since April 22, Liu said.
US President Joe Biden said on Saturday his country had offered to provide coronavirus vaccines to North Korea, which has imposed a sweeping lockdown and other restrictions during its first confirmed outbreak, but there had been no response from Pyongyang.
He made the remarks at a joint news conference with South Korea's new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, following their first summit in Seoul.- Reuters.
North Korea said Saturday it found nearly 220,000 more people with feverish symptoms even as leader Kim Jong Un claimed progress in slowing a largely undiagnosed spread of Covid-19 across an unvaccinated population of 26 million.
The outbreak has caused concern about serious tragedies in the poor, isolated country with one of the world's worst health care systems and a high tolerance for civilian suffering.
Experts say North Korea is almost certainly downplaying the true scale of the viral spread, including a strangely small death toll, to soften the political blow on Kim as he navigates the toughest moment in his decade of rule. - AP.
With the addition of 27 coronavirus positive cases, the infection count in Thane district of Maharashtra mounted to 7,09,494, an official said on Saturday.
These cases were reported on Friday.
The death toll in the district remained unchanged at 11,895, he said, adding that the mortality rate is 1.67 per cent.
In neighbouring Palghar district, the caseload stood at 1,63,612, while the death toll is 3,407, another official said. - PTI.
The global coronavirus caseload has topped 526.6 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 6.28 million and vaccinations to over 11.43 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 526,690,884 and 6,287,461, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered increased to 11,437,712,256. - IANS.
To accelerate the coverage of those vaccinated against Covid-19, the Union Health Ministry on Friday announced it will launch a two-month long door-to-door campaign in June and July. The campaign will give preference to eligible senior citizens to be inoculated with a booster dose.
Protests bubbling in big cities, dismal economic indicators and rampant discontent online -- China's zero-Covid policy is morphing from a propaganda victory to a political liability for President Xi Jinping.
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