Coronavirus Highlights: Haryana Imposes New Covid Curbs In 5 Districts Amid Omicron Scare
Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Maharashtra recorded 8,067 new coronavirus cases on Friday, 50 per cent more than the day before, along with eight fatalities.
LIVE
Background
Coronavirus LIVE UPDATES: The Union Health Ministry wrote to states advising that anyone with fever, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, bodyache, recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue, and diarrhea should be considered a suspect case of Covid-19.
The letter, written by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and ICMR DG Dr Balram Bhargava, was to chief secretaries of all states/UTs.
"Set up round the clock functional RAT booths at different locations, engage medical and paramedical staff, and encourage the use of home test kits," the letter said.
"Any individual presenting with fever with/without cough, headache, sore throat, breathlessness, body ache, the recent loss of taste or smell, fatigue, and diarrhea should be considered as a suspect case of COVID-19 unless proven otherwise," it further said.
The Health Ministry said that all those with symptoms should "immediately isolate themselves and follow home isolation guidelines".
State-Wise COVID Update
Maharashtra
Maharashtra recorded 8,067 new coronavirus cases on Friday, 50 per cent more than the day before, and eight fatalities, the state health department said.
The new cases included four Omicron variant infections, it added.
On Thursday, the state had reported 5,368 new coronavirus cases. "Today, four cases of Omicron have been reported in the state, one each from Vasai-Virar, Navi Mumbai, Mira-Bhayander and Panvel," the official release said.
Delhi
Delhi on Friday recorded 1,796 fresh Covid cases, the highest single-day rise since May 22, and zero death while the positivity rate mounted to 2.44 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
On Thursday, 1,313 cases were recorded with a positivity rate of 1.73 per cent, according to official figures. The daily cases count had breached the 1000-mark after a gap of seven months.
The daily cases count surged to 1,796 on Friday with an increased positivity rate of 2.44 per cent, as per the latest health bulletin.
This single-day rise is the highest since May 22 when 2,260 cases were logged with a positivity rate of 3.58 per cent. As many as 182 deaths were also recorded on that day.
The huge spike in fresh cases over the past few days here is being recorded amid a significant jump in cases of the new Omicron variant of Covid in Delhi.
West Bengal
West Bengal, which is witnessing a sudden spurt in Covid-19 cases from the beginning of this week, recorded 3,451 infections on Friday with Kolkata alone accounting for 1,954 or 56 per cent of these, a Health department bulletin said.
The state had recorded 2,128 Covid-19 cases on Thursday, with the metropolis accounting for 1,090 of that. While the state's fresh infections shot up by 62 per cent in the last 24 hours, the eastern metropolis's new Covid cases went up by 79 per cent.
Compared to Wednesday the fresh infection numbers for Kolkata were almost four-times, alarming health administrators. The city had let down its guard in recent days with merry-makers thronging the streets and the city's clubs and restaurants on Christmas eve.
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu on Friday reported a surge in new cases of Omicron with 76 cases being infected with the new variant of the coronavirus. With this, the total infected was 120 thereby breaching the triple digit-mark in the State, the Health Department said.
Till Thursday, the total cases stood at 46.
According to a bulletin here, the department received 115 results of the 117 samples which were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune, after they were detected with 'S' gene drop variant.
'S' gene drop detection in a sample is believed that the person might be infected with Omicron.
The bulletin said, "Of the 115 results received, 74 have been identified as Omicron variant and 41 as Delta variant." Results of the two samples were yet to be received, it said.
"With the existing 46 infections already declared, the addition of the 74 cases identified in the present set through whole genomic sequencing, the total Omicron cases is 120," the bulletin said.
While the new infections recorded a rise, the recoveries also grew with 66 people getting discharged from hospitals.
As on date, the Omicron cases under treatment was 52, the bulletin said.
Chennai topped the list of districts with Omicron with 95 cases followed by Chengalpet five, Madurai four, Thiruvallur three. Places like Salem, Thiruvarur, Coimbatore, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli, Ranipet, reported one case each, the bulletin said.
The number of coronavirus deaths in the national capital, logged in the month of December, stands at nine, the highest in the last four months.
The death toll due to the coronavirus infection in Delhi stands at 25,107.
On Wednesday, Tuesday and Monday the daily cases tally had stood at 923; 496 and 331 cases respectively, as per official data.
The number of cumulative cases on Monday stood at 14,48,211. Over 14.18 lakh patients have recovered from the infection.
Seven COVID-19 deaths were reported here in November this year, according to official data. Delhi had recorded four Covid deaths in October and five in September.
A total of 73,590 tests -- 62,812 RT-PCR tests and 10,778 rapid antigen tests -- were conducted a day ago, the bulletin said.
Kerala
Kerala on Friday logged 2,676 fresh COVID-19 infections and 353 deaths, which took the caseload to 52,35,348 and the fatalities to 47,794.
Of the 353 deaths, 11 were recorded over the last few days and 342 designated as COVID-19 deaths after receiving appeals based on the new guidelines of the Centre and the directions of the Supreme Court.
With 2,742 more people recovering from the virus since Thursday, the total recoveries reached 51,79,277 and the active cases dropped to 19,416, an official press release said.
Among the 14 districts, Ernakulam recorded the highest with 503 fresh cases, followed by Thiruvananthapuram (500) and Kozhikode (249).
Omicron Scare: Haryana's New Covid Curbs
#Omicron: Haryana Govt closes cinema halls, sports complexes, swimming pools, and entertainment parks in Gurugram, Faridabad & three other districts; govt & private offices to function with 50% staff attendance
— ANI (@ANI) January 1, 2022
Restrictions to remain in effect till January 12 pic.twitter.com/ILREGZgFn1
Kerala Logs 2,435 New Coronavirus Cases
Kerala on Saturday recorded 2,435 fresh coronavirus cases and 22 COVID-19 related deaths, taking the caseload to 52,40,487 and the death toll to 48,035.
"Currently, there are 18,904 active COVID-19 cases in the state of which only 10.7 per cent are admitted to hospitals," the health department said in a release.
Covid-19 In Mumbai
Mumbai reports 6,347 fresh COVID cases (5,712 asymptomatic), 451 recoveries, and one death today
— ANI (@ANI) January 1, 2022
Active cases: 22,334
Total recoveries: 750158
On Dec 31, the city recorded 5,631 infections pic.twitter.com/QGk9BeR977
Covid-19 In Rajasthan
Rajasthan, on Saturday, reported 52 new cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, ANI reported. All patients who have tested positive for Omicron have been kept in isolation. With this, total tally of Omicron cases have risen to 121.
Bengal minister Aroop Biswas tests positive for Coronavirus, hospitalised
West Bengal Power Minister Aroop Biswas was hospitalised on Saturday after he tested positive for COVID-19.
"He has mild symptoms and he is being administered antibodies. His oxygen levels are being monitored, and it is yet to be decided whether to send his samples for genome sequencing," an official told PTI.
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