Coronavirus News Highlights: WHO says no evidence healthy children, adolescents need Covid-19 boosters

There is no evidence at present that healthy children and adolescents need booster doses of Covid-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a news briefing, she said that while there seems to be some waning of vaccine immunity over time against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus, more research needs to be done to ascertain who needs booster doses.

"There is no evidence right now that healthy children or heavy adolescents need boosters. No evidence at all," she said.

- Reuters.. The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to peak much earlier than anticipated and may take a maximum of three more weeks, even though the share of rural districts in new caseloads has increased significantly since December, says a report.

. A World Health Organization committee urged Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers on Tuesday to provide it with the data it requires in order to list their shots for emergency use, saying the delays were affecting equitable vaccine access.

An emergency use listing with the UN agency means shots can be shipped to multiple developing nations that rely on WHO guidance for their regulatory decisions. It also allows them to be used by the COVAX vaccine-sharing programme that aims to ramp up vaccinations in poorer countries.

"The Committee recognized the challenges posed by some manufacturers’ delayed submission of vaccine data to WHO," its Emergency Committee said in a statement, urging vaccine producers to supply the data as soon as possible. - Reuters.

. Covid-19 infections in Kerala on Tuesday witnessed a steep rise as the state reported 28,481 new positive cases taking the infection count to 54,07,312. Kerala had reported 22,946 cases on Monday. - PTI.

. Pregnant and lactating women are informed about the risks of Covid-19 during pregnancy as also the benefits and likely side effects of the vaccination as per the advisory and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), the Centre has told the Supreme Court.

In its affidavit, the Centre has said that the guidelines issued for monitoring of adverse events following Covid-19 vaccine allows for reporting of any suspected adverse event irrespective of the time interval between the day of vaccination and the day of onset of symptoms. - PTI.

. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday denied an accusation by his former adviser that he had lied to parliament about a lockdown party, saying that nobody had warned him the gathering might contravene Covid rules.

Asked if he had lied to the public and parliament, Johnson told reporters: "No."

"No. Nobody told me that what we were doing was, as you say, against the rules, that the event in question, was, something, we were going to do something that wasn't a work event," Johnson said.

Johnson sidestepped several questions about whether or not he would resign if it was proven that he had misled parliament. - Reuters.

. British health minister Sajid Javid said on Tuesday he was optimistic that measures introduced to reduce the spread of Omicron will be scaled back next week as cases and hospitalisations look to have peaked.

"I have always said that these restrictions should not stay in place a day longer than they are absolutely necessary," Javid said in parliament, adding Britain was the most boosted country in Europe and had the most Covid-19 antivirals in Europe.

"Due to these pharmaceutical defences and the likelihood that we have already reached the peak of the case numbers and hospitalisations, I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to substantially reduce measures next week." - Reuters.

. A fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine boosts antibodies to higher levels than the third jab but provides only partial protection against the Omicron variant of coronavirus, according to a preliminary study conducted in Israel.

The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study tested the efficacy and safety of vaccines and analysed whether the combination of vaccines from different manufacturers would affect the rate of increase of antibodies. - PTI.

. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said on Tuesday that Russia had so far recorded 1,682 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant across 42 regions, as authorities brace for a significant rise in infections.

Omicron has pushed Covid-19 case figures to record highs in parts of western Europe and the United States but the variant has been slower to hit Russia, where daily Covid cases have fallen from a peak of 41,335 registered in early November. - Reuters.

. Flagging a decline in the number of Covid-19 tests in many states and union territories, the Centre on Monday asked them to enhance testing so that an effective track of the spread of the pandemic can be kept and immediate citizen-centric action can be initiated.

In a letter to states and UTs, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja advised them to pay attention to this aspect immediately and increase the testing in a strategic manner keeping in view the trend of case positivity in specific areas. - PTI.

. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday he planned to impose a state of quasi-emergency, meaning stronger Covid-19 curbs on dining and gatherings, on 13 regions including Tokyo from Jan. 21 to Feb. 13.

He said the government had halted a programme where those vaccinated or with negative test results would be exempted from coronavirus restrictions as virus cases jumped. - Reuters.

. The Covid-19 tally of Andaman and Nicobar Islands rose to 8,695 on Tuesday as 49 people tested positive for the infection, 16 less than the previous day, a health bulletin said.

Thirty-two new patients have travel history, while 17 infections were detected during contact tracing, it said.

The Union territory now has 449 active cases, while 8,117 people have recovered from the disease so far, including 66 in the last 24 hours.

The death toll remained unchanged at 129 as no fresh fatality was registered, it added. - PTI.

. Thailand will lower its Covid-19 alert level and is considering easing more restrictions to boost its economy, its health minister said on Tuesday, in response to a slower infection rate.

Among measures being considered are establishing more "sandbox" areas for tourists, who can skip quarantine if they stay in specified areas for seven days and undergo two Covid-19 tests.

Nightclubs, pubs and bars will remained closed for now, however, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters, adding the Covid-19 alert level will be lowered to 3, from 4, on the government's 5-level system. - Reuters.

. Hong Kong ordered a cull of 2,000 hamsters on Tuesday and warned pet owners not to kiss animals after a new cluster of Covid-19 cases was traced to a pet shop.

The outbreak of Delta variant cases in humans linked to the shop worker prompted tests on hundreds of animals, with 11 hamsters showing up positive.

That has brought a pet rodent clampdown on Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, which is following the mainland's zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 even as much of the world shifts to living with it. - Reuters.

. Being infected with Covid could cause more damage to the brain of an elderly person than developing Alzheimer's, a new study revealed.

A research team from the New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine found that some elderly Covid survivors may be afflicted with a condition called toxic metabolic encephalopathy (TME), the Daily Mail reported.

The researchers found that people who had developed the condition as a result of Covid infection were showing more severe signs of brain damage than people who had Alzheimer's in blood screenings.

Patients who had contracted TME tested 60 per cent higher on screenings to detect brain damage. - IANS.

. One in ten people may still be infectious for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, after the 10 day quarantine period, according to a study.

. India has so far administered more than 50 lakh precaution doses of Covid-19 vaccine to healthcare workers, frontline workers and 60 plus population.

Terming it a "milestone", Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya requested all those eligible to get their precautions dose. - IANS.

. Ladakh reported 152 freshCovid-19 cases, taking the overall caseload in the Union Territory to 23,536 and active cases to 844, officials said on Tuesday.

The highest 132 positive samples were received from Leh district while 20 cases surfaced in Kargil district, the officials said.

. Covid-19 cases and deaths at US nursing homes are rising to a new peak amid the Omicron surge across the country, according to latest data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nursing homes reported a near-record of over 32,000 cases among residents in the week ending January 9, an almost sevenfold increase from a month earlier, Xinhua news agency reported citing the CDC data published on Monday.

. Amid an ongoing resurgence across the world, the global coronavirus caseload has topped 330.2 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.54 million and vaccinations to over 9.64 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Tuesday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 330,275,734 and 5,544,688, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 9,649,807,641.

. The number of West Bengal's daily Covid-19 cases came down to less than 10,000 after 12 days on Monday, when 9,385 new infections were recorded, according to the health department data.

The number of fresh cases on Monday is 5,553 less than Sunday's as the tally went up to 19,07,084. Altogether 33 fresh fatalities, down from the previous day's 36, took the death toll to 20,121, the health department said in a bulletin.

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. Warning that the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over and Omicron would not be the last variant, global health experts on Monday said a lot would depend on transmissibility and severity of the next mutants of the deadly virus.

. Tamil Nadu on Monday reported a marginal dip in fresh Covid-19 infections with 23,443 cases but the active cases breached the 1.50 lakh mark and fatalities were 20, a health bulletin said.

Coronavirus News Highlights: WHO says no evidence healthy children, adolescents need Covid-19 boosters

WHO says no evidence healthy children, adolescents need Covid-19 boosters

Third wave of Covid-19 may peak in next three weeks: Report

Maharashtra records 39,207 new Covid-19 cases, 26 per cent more than previous day, and 53 fresh deaths; no new Omicron case reported

WHO urges manufacturers to provide Covid-19 vaccine data

Over 50% of youngsters between 15-18 age group receive 1st dose of vaccine

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