Coronavirus: Mock drill across states, UTs on Tuesday

Within 72 hours of the detection of the BF.7 Omicron variant in India, there has been a 400% jump in precautionary jabs across Telangana and almost eight-fold rise in Odisha. In Telangana, on December 21, a day before the sub-variant surfaced in India, only 646 beneficiaries had taken the booster shots. But this figure spiralled to 3,380 within three days (December 24) as people were jolted by the fear of another Covid wave that’s already taking a debilitating toll on neighbouring China.

At the Delhi airport, as many as 455 passengers have been subjected to random coronavirus testing, starting from 10 am on Saturday till 7 pm on Sunday. Out of them, less than half per cent are positive cases, an official at Genestrings Diagnostic Centre said. In a statement earlier in the day, Genestrings said that by the end of Saturday, it had conducted approximately 110 tests.On an average, 25,000 travellers arrive at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here and out of them, 500 random passengers are being tested, it added.The company is also ramping up manpower for sample collection and testing at the airport.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday gave Rs 10 lakh each to the families of 53 journalists who died of COVID-19 and saluted their courage. Adityanath said that the manner in which journalists spread awareness and exposed the shortcomings of the system with a positive spirit, even in the middle of a severe pandemic, is commendable.Adityanath disbursed Rs 5.30 crore in all to the families of 53 journalists who died during the pandemic.In July last year, families of 50 other journalists were provided an assistance of Rs 10 lakh each, the UP government said in a statement.

Maharashtra recorded 32 new coronavirus positive cases on Sunday, taking its overall infection tally to 81,36,511, a health department official said.The death toll remained unchanged at 1,48,414.

Hundreds thronged churches across the national capital for Christmas festivities on Sunday after two years of muted celebrations in the shadow of the Covid pandemic with people seeking to find a balance between rituals and precautions. Most churches urged the people to wear masks and follow Covid-appropriate behaviour. The pandemic had put a halt to big congregations with most churches hosting socially distanced celebrations for two years.

A man who recently returned from China was found positive for COVID-19 at the Taj Mahal in Agra on Sunday, said Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Agra Dr Arun Kumar Srivastava said.The sample has been sent to Lucknow for genome sequencing to know the variant. The sample has been sent to Lucknow for genome sequencing. He landed on December 22 in India and on December 23 he reached Agra.

Tamil Nadu's health department has said that the state has maximum XBB variants of Omicron and till now no variant of BF 7, which is causing the new wave of Covid-19 in many countries, has been detected in the state.While speaking to media persons, P. Sampath, Joint Director, Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said, "The state has more XBB variants as more than 75 per cent of the samples tested in the state have these variants detected. However till now no BF. 7 variant of Omicron has been detected in the state."The BA.2, BA.5 and even Delta variants are present in the state but not the BF.7 variant in the state of Tamil Nadu, he added.

With the reduction in cases and more widespread vaccination, India had discontinued mandatory RT-PCR tests for international passengers by November. From Saturday, random coronavirus testing of international passengers started at airports including those in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Indore and Goa under new guidelines that require testing of two per cent of the passengers arriving in each international flight.

India's move to conduct RT-PCR test on a limited scale on passengers arriving from abroad has raised concerns among travellers but it's unlikely to have disruptive impact on the travel plans of most holidaymakers, including from the diaspora, the community members said on Sunday.

Amid spurt in Covid-19 infections in some parts of the world and cases of Omicron subvariant BF.7 found in the country, the Karnataka government on Monday is likely to decide on preventive measures and guidelines to be followed in the days ahead, including for the New Year celebrations. The state may decide on the guidelines at a meeting headed by the Health and Disaster Management Ministers, along with technical experts.

Alerted by the new BF.7 Covid-19 variant, the officials at the Gannavaram airport here in Andhra Pradesh conducted Corona tests for international travellers. The arrangements were made by the District Medical Officers at the airport on the orders of the Central and State Governments. As per Centre's guidelines, two per cent of international passengers arriving at Indian airports are to be tested.

China's Zhejiang, a big industrial province near Shanghai, is battling around a million new daily Covid-19 infections, a number expected to double in the days ahead, the provincial government said on Sunday. Despite a record surge of cases nationwide, China reported no Covid deaths on the mainland for the five days through Saturday, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday.

In view of a surge in Covid-19 cases in some countries, officials will physically visit all government hospitals in Delhi and ascertain their preparedness to deal with any eventuality, authorities said on Sunday. In pursuance of the central government's directions, a mock drill will be conducted across all city government hospitals on Tuesday.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said that every day almost 45,000-50,000 COVID-19 tests are being conducted in the state. While talking to the media, Kumar said, "We are conducting COVID tests and administering vaccines. Every day almost 45,000-50,000 tests are being conducted. "Bihar is on alert, and patients are being provided treatment. The Centre is also careful. We have to be careful with those coming from outside," he added.

We are usually born with an aversion to the sensations like the taste of chilli on our tongue. This isn't surprising because the key ingredient in chilli is a compound called capsaicin, which causes a painful and even burning sensation when it comes into contact with sensitive areas of our skin, eyes and mouth. Little wonder that it is also a key ingredient in pepper spray. But in smaller, tolerable amounts, we can adapt to the sensations evoked by chilli and find them desirable.

With India resuming random testing for 2% international arrivals, the lab at India’s busiest airport — Delhi’s IGIA — says it will be conducting about 500 tests daily. These tests resumed on Saturday (Dec 24) at 10 am (after peak arrival time for international flights) and Day One saw 110 tests being conducted, Genestrings Diagnostic Centre's lab at the Delhi airport said in a statement.

The central government has stepped up measures against the virus, with the cases on a rise, especially in China where the lifting of zero-Covid policy has caused a spread of the pandemic. Modi has also chaired meetings and his government has written to the states to put in place adequate measures to deal with any spurt.

We are seeing that Covid cases are rising in many countries in the world. We need to remain careful and wear masks and wash our hands: PM Modi in Mann Ki Baat

Vinay K Nandicoori, director CCMB, stressing the need to follow Covid appropriate behaviour, said there is always a concern that all these variants have the ability to escape the immunity and can infect people who are vaccinated and even sometimes infected with the previous variants of Omicron.