Coronavirus News Highlights: BA2.75 omicron subvariant leading cause of coronavirus infections in Delhi

India on Saturday logged 15,815 new Covid-19 cases. BA2.75 omicron subvariant is spreading faster than other variants, Dr Suresh Kumar, MD LNJP hospital said. Track the latest Covid-19 news and updates from India and across the world with DH.

12 fresh Covid-19 cases in Ladakh

Ladakh on Saturday recorded 12 freshCovid-19 cases that pushed its infection tally to 29,050, officials said.

All the fresh cases were reported from Leh, they said.

So far, 228 people have succumbed toCovid-19 in Ladakh. Of these, 168 deaths were reported from Leh and 60 from Kargil, according to the officials.

The officials said the number of activeCovid-19 cases stands at 102 in Ladakh -- 96 from Leh and six from Kargil.

A total of 174 samples were tested forCovid-19 in Ladakh. Of these, 129 samples from Leh and 33 from Kargil tested negative, they said.

Himachal reports 423 Covid-19 cases, 1 death

Himachal Pradesh recorded 423 newCovid-19 infections on Saturday, taking the infection tally to 3,07,482, officials said.

A 45-year-old woman succumbed to the disease in Sirmaur district as the death toll rose to 4,163, they said.

The tally of activeCovid-19 cases in the state stands 3,024.

On Saturday, 3,702 samples were taken for testing and 423 of them tested positive forCovid.

403 new Covid-19 cases in Odisha

Odisha'sCovid-19 tally rose to 13,22,183 on Saturday as 403 more people, including 48 children, tested positive for the infection, a health bulletin said.

TheCovid-19 death toll remained at 9,154 as there was no new death. Fifty-three other patients have died due to comorbidities so far, the health department said.

The state had logged 583 infections and a fatality on Friday.

Tibet capital Lhasa undergoes three-day 'disinfection' for Covid-19

Authorities in Xinjiang are threatening those who flout quarantine laws with as many as three weeks of detention amid a new outbreak ofCovid-19 in the region that has seen infections rise sharply since the start of the month, media reports said.

The warning comes as the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) capital Lhasa entered a three-day state of de facto lockdown amid a growing number ofCovid-19 cases in the city, RFA reported.

On Friday, authorities announced that they had documented 410 new asymptomaticCOVID-19 infections in Xinjiang, bringing the total to 1,727, as the region continues to grapple with a new outbreak that has led to strict lockdowns.

An official in Qorghas county's Langar township, who oversees 10 families in Yengiavat village, told RFA that authorities have been conducting street patrols to ensure that nobody is leaving their homes during an ongoing lockdown in the area and informing residents that they would be detained for up to three weeks if they do, RFA reported.

Arunachal logs 30 new Covid-19 cases

Thirty more people tested positive forCovid-19 in Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday, nine less than the previous day, with the caseload mounting to 66,383, a senior health official said.

The death toll remained unchanged at 296 as no new fatality due to the infection was recorded in the last 24 hours, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

Of the new cases, eight were reported from Namsai district, followed by the Capital Complex Region at four, the official said.

Arunachal Pradesh currently has 203 active cases, while 65,884 people have so far recuperated from the disease, including 54 in the last 24 hours, the SSO said.

Puducherry reports 87 new Covid-19 cases

Puducherry on Saturday witnessed a fall in the number of newCovid-19 cases with 87 people testing positive for the virus as against 95 cases registered in the Union Territory the previous day. Director of Health G Sriramulu, in a release, said that the Health Department examined 1,547 samples and found 87 positive cases.

Puducherry region alone accounted for 58 of the new cases while Karaikal had 22 and Yanam seven cases. Mahe, an enclave of Puducherry in Kerala, did not report any fresh case of viral infection, the Director said. There were 454 active cases comprising six patients in hospitals and the remaining 448 patients in home quarantine, Sriramulu said. The Health Department has examined 23,66,309 samples till now and found 20,02,867 samples out of them to be negative. Sriramulu said that the overall caseload in the UT was 1,72,049.

Shanghai extends weekly Covid-19 testing requirement until end of September

China's most populous city Shanghai has extended its weeklyCovid-19 test requirement and extended free testing until the end of September in a bid to keep the virus in check, authorities announced on Saturday.

Citizens without a record of a nucleic acid test from within seven days will be assigned a yellow code on Shanghai's health code system, the official notice said. A yellow code restricts access to some public venues.

On Saturday health authorities in the financial hub of 25 million said they detected one symptomatic and three asymptomatic cases a day earlier.

BA2.75 subvariant of omicron leading cause of infections in Delhi, says LNJP hospital MD Dr Suresh Kumar

Rise in pregnancy-related complications during Covid pandemic: Study

Covid-19 has caused unprecedented stressors as a new study showed a rise in pregnancy-related complications during the pandemic.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, assessed how pregnancy-related complications and obstetric outcomes changed during Covid compared to pre-pandemic.

Looking at the relative changes in the mode of delivery, rates of premature births and mortality outcomes before compared to during the pandemic, the team found increased odds of maternal death during delivery hospitalisation, cardiovascular disorders and obstetric hemorrhage during the pandemic.

Assam reported 152 new Covid-19 cases and two more deaths in the last 24 hours

Assam reported 152 newCovid-19 cases and two more deaths in the last 24 hours, a National Health Mission (NHM), Assam, bulletin said on Saturday.The current activeCovid-19positive caseload in the state is 3,359, a decrease by 40 against that of the previous day.The recovery rate in the state is 98.47 per cent.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi tests positive for Covid-19 again

Nearly 30 per cent of children who were hospitalised for Covid-19 or MIS-C, a rare but covid-related severe condition, had symptoms more than a couple of months after their diagnosis, finds a new study

The study revealed the most common symptoms for children hospitalised with Covid-19 were fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, headache, muscle and body aches and fever, reports CNN.

"Vaccine uptake for children is still not very high, but vaccines could prevent this," study co-author Adrienne Randolph from the Harvard Medical School was quoted as saying.

MIS-C is a rare condition that affects children often, but not always, after Covid-19 infection. Doctors are yet to figure out what exactly causes it.

West Bengal logged 472 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday, pushing the tally to 21,01,547, the health department said in a bulletin. Three more fatalities took the death toll in the state to 21,417

China reported 2,144 new Covid-19 infections on Aug. 12, of which 704 were symptomatic and 1,440 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Saturday.

That is compared with 2,009 new cases a day earlier, 704 symptomatic and 1,305 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately.

There were no new deaths, same as a day earlier, keeping the nation's fatalities at 5,226.

Novak Djokovic pulled out of next week's hard-court tournament in Cincinnati because he has not gotten any Covid-19 vaccine shots and so is not allowed to travel to the United States.

That is also why Djokovic is not expected to be able to enter the U.S. Open, the year's last Grand Slam tournament, which begins in New York on Aug. 29.

India reported nearly 16,000 new Covid cases and 68 fatalities, including 24 reconciled by Kerala, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.

Carnival drops mandatory Covid-19 testing for vaccinated passengers

Carnival Corp's major cruise lines will drop mandatory Covid-19 testing for vaccinated guests and allow unvaccinated passengers to travel without an exemption in some cases, the company said on Friday.