Coronavirus news highlights: Twelve more Omicron cases reported in Telangana

Karnataka has detected six more Omicron cases with five from two clusters in Dakshina Kannada and a traveller from the UK testing positive for the variant. 16 students from a school in Navi Mumbai have tested positive for Covid-19 and have been admitted to a Covid care centre. They are students of Classes 8 to 11, a Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) official said.

Over 8 crore people vaccinated against Covid in Tamil Nadu

The total number of people who have been administered vaccines against Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu breached eight crore, with 19.07 lakh beneficiaries receiving the shots during the 15th mega vaccination drive conducted on Saturday, the health department said.

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Twelve more Omicron cases reported in Telangana

India's Omicron tally rises to 126

India's Omicron Covid count rose to 126 on Saturday after Karnataka and Kerala reported six and four cases respectively, while three more persons in Maharashtra also tested positive for the variant.

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Government ready for Omicron variant: Arvind Kejriwal

Karnataka's Covid-19 tally rises to 30,02,127 with 335 fresh cases

Maharashtra reports 854 new Covid-19, cases 11 deaths

Maharashtra sees 8 more cases of Omicron; tally now at 48

Omicron more transmissible than Delta but not as severe: AIIMS professor

Nigerian in late 60s tests positive for Covid-19 in Bengal; sample sent for genome sequencing

Another traveller from the UK has also tested positive for the new variant: Sudhakar

Karnataka adds five more cases of Omicron from two clusters in Dakshina Kannada

DDMA directs hotel to cancel AP Dhillion concert, says violation of Covid norms

Delhi Disaster Management Authority directs Khubani, Andaz Hotel, Aerocity to cancel a music concert by Punjabi singer AP Dhillion citing violation of COVID norms. The concert was scheduled for tonight at 10 pm. (ANI)

No peer-reviewed evidence yet on vaccine effectiveness against Omicron: WHO

Omicron spreading in countries having population with high immunity, not sure if it is due to immune evasion: WHO

Omicron spreading faster in Delta with documented community transmission: WHO

Omicron variant identified in 89 countries: WHO

Omicron 'predominant' Covid variant in England: UK health agency

Omicron is now the predominant variant among new cases ofCovidin England, and is also causing reinfection around one in 20 cases, according to new analysis published by the UK Health Security Agency (HSA).

Of 5,153 individuals identified with an Omicron infection between November 1 and December 11, 305 (5.9 per cent) were linked to a previously confirmed infection and also had an interval from the previous positive test of 90 days or more.

Ukraine reports its first case of Omicron coronavirus variant

Ukraine has detected its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant, Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said on Saturday.

The infected person recently returned to Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates, Lyashko said on Facebook.

EPL managers to meet on Monday over Covid concerns as games postponed

English Premier League managers will meet on Monday to discuss the worsening Covid-19 situation, which has already wiped out half of the weekend games and sidelined star players.

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16 students of Navi Mumbai school test Covid-19 positive

Sixteen students of a school at Ghansoli in Navi Mumbai have tested positive for coronavirus and admitted to a localCovid Care Centre, a civic official said on Saturday. They are students of Classes 8 to 11, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) official said.

"The father of one of the students had returned from Qatar on December 9. The man, who resides with his family at Gothivali in Ghansoli, had tested negative for theCovid-19 infection. However, when his family members were tested, his son, a Class 11 student of the school, was found infected," he said.(PTI)

India logged 7,145 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of Covid-19 cases to 3,47,26,049,

Active cases declined to 84,565, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to 3,41,71,471 with 8,706 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

WHO issues emergency use listing for Serum Institute-Novavax's anti-COVID vaccine

The World Health Organisation on Friday issued emergency use listing for anti-COVID vaccine Covovax produced by Serum Institute of India under licence from Novavax, expanding the basket of jabs validated by the global health body against the viral disease.

Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII), hailed WHO's decision as "yet another milestone" in the fight against Covid-19.

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The global coronavirus caseload has topped 273.6 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.34 million and vaccinations to over 8.63 billion, according to 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 273,668,314 and 5,344,177, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 8,635,127,558.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 50,706,733 and 805,823, according to the CSSE.

Bengaluru | No decision has been taken on compulsory institutional quarantine for foreign arrivals from 'at-risk' countries, even if they test negative for Covid-19: BBMP

Nepal governmnet issues guidelines on quarantine on arrivals

Omicron scare: 28 samples sent for genome sequencing in TN

Tamil Nadu Health Minister, Ma Subramanian, said on Friday that the state health department has sent the samples of 28 passengers, who arrived from at-risk and non-risk countries, for genome sequencing analysis.

The minister said that these samples have been sent for genome sequencing after the persons tested positive for Covid-19.

No scientific data to suggest Covid pills will be useful now: ICMR

The scientific data on anti-viral Covid pills still does not support that these medicines will be useful at the moment as it has been found that they need to be given earlier even before the diagnosis of the disease, Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava said on Friday.

In a briefing on the present situation of Covid and new variant Omicron in the country, he said that it is very important to have low-intensity festivities and avoid non-essential travel and mass gatherings.