Hyderabad: Omicron variant continues to ravage India as many states gear up to welcome harvest festivals in coming days. Meanwhile, Haridwar administration has banned the bath in River Ganges, a ritual, as a precautionary measure while COVID-19 cases continue to rise at an alarming rate, prompting the states and UTs to come up with more restrictions and curbs.
However, India started administering precautionary Covid-19 jabs to frontline workers and senior citizens, in a milestone in the country's fight against the pandemic on Monday. Yet, several political leaders, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Karntaka CM Basavaraj Bommai, Arunachal Pradesh Dy CM Chowna Mein and Union Minister Ajay Bhatt tested positive for Coronavirus.
In a significant development, Union Health Ministry removed photo of PM Modi from Covid-19 vaccine certificates to comply with the Model Code of Conduct in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa & Manipur. Meanwhile, the cities that contributed to the steep rise in cases in the past week, continue to report spike in everyday Covid-19 cases.
Delhi
Delhi reported 19,166 fresh cases on Monday with 14,076 recoveries, and 17 deaths. With this, active cases in the capital has touched 65,806 and the daily positivity rate is at 25%. The death toll in the national capital has mounted to 25,177.
Huge number of frontline workers have been testing positive in recent times. In Delhi, nearly, 1,000 cops tested positive in the last ten days while over 1300 CRPF personnel have tested positive. In light of this, DDMA has decided to close restaurants and bars and allow only take away facility in hotels.
According to Sutra, a mathematical model developed by scientists at IIT Kanpur and IIT Hyderabad , Delhi is likely to record 35,000 to 70,000 infections at the peak of the third wave around January 15.
Maharashtra
In a slight relief, Maharashtra reported 33,470 new Covid-19 cases, 10,918 lesser than the previous day, taking state tally to 69,53,514 while eight more deaths pushed toll to 1,41,647. Mumbai alone accounted for 13, 648 cases. 232 police personnel have contracted the infection in Maharashtra since January 3 this year.
Bombay High Court instructed BMC to not leave any stone unturned in ensuring people of the metropolis remained safe from the rapidly rising number of cases caused by the new Omicron variant.
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu records 13,990 positive cases, with Chennai accounting for a staggering 6,190 Coronavirus cases. Neighboring districts also recorded high number of cases - Chengalpattu (1,696) and Thiruvallur (1,054) new cases.
Despite the rise in cases, Tamil Nadu government has allowed Jallikattu events to take place this year, albeit with restrictions. Full vaccination or negative RT-PCR report not older than 48 hours is a must to participate in the event.
University semester exams in the State, slated for later this month, have been deferred indefinitely due to the Covid-19 situation in the state. People will not be allowed in worship places between January 14 and January 18 and special inter-district buses for Pongal will run at 75% capacity
Kerala
