Omicron Variant Highlights: Delhi reports 6 cases of new Covid strain, India's tally crosses 160

South African Medical Assn Chairperson Dr Angelique Coetzee on Monday called Omicron 'quite transmissible'. However, she said that cases detected in South Africa were mostly mild. "I've seen 100 patients myself. It's quite transmissible; if I look at Delta, it seems less but it's very transmissible. In South Africa we don't see severe cases, it's mostly mild cases", she told ANI.

A new Omicron variant case from Gujarat's Vadodara has taken the state's tally to 14. This is Vadodara's third Omicron case. On Sunday, 4 new cases were reported in the state.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday said that India will use the experience during the 1st & 2nd waves to ensure than Omicron variant doesn't spread. He said, "As of now, India has 161 Omicron cases...We're monitoring the situation daily with experts. With our experience during the 1st & 2nd waves, to ensure that we don't face problems when variant spreads, we've arranged a buffer stock of important medicines".

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar claimed that no Omicron variant cases exist in the state. He said, "There is alertness in the state. We are prepared...arrangements have been made. Though there are no cases...you never know. Most number of per day tests are happening in the state- over 5 lakh tests being done", news agency ANI reported.

Amid Omicron threat, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said all new positive cases of coronavirus being reported in the city will be sent for genome sequencing even as he appealed to the Centre to allow booster dose for health workers and others. He said there is no need to panic in view of the Omicron variant.

There is "no evidence" that Omicron has a lower severity than the Delta strain, according to a study in the UK which also found that the new variant of coronavirus largely evades immunity from past infection or two vaccine doses.

The study by researchers from Imperial College London in the UK estimates that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant is 5.4 times greater than that of the Delta variant.

Israeli ministers on Monday approved putting the United States and Canada on its coronavirus travel red list as the omicron variant spreads around the globe.

The rare move to red-list the U.S. comes amid rising infections in Israel. The U.S. will join a growing list of European countries and other destinations to which Israeli are barred from travelling, and from which returning travellers must remain in quarantine.

The national capital on Monday recorded four new Omicron cases, taking the total number of cases of the variant to 28. The four people, found to be infected with the variant, are admitted to Max hospital in Delhi's Saket.

Four new Omicron cases have been confirmed in Kerala on Monday, taking the tally of new Covid-19 variant cases to 15, the state Health Minister's Office said.

Delhi reported two new Omicron cases on Monday, taking the tally of new Covid variant in the national capital to 24, the Health Department said.

The Bangladesh government has started administering Covid-19 booster shots on a trial basis. The country's Health Minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the program in Dhaka on Sunday, while a nurse Runu Veronica Costa, who had received the first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine in the country, was also administered the first booster dose, reports Xinhua news agency.

Researchers in the UK are using new ways to rapidly develop and mass manufacture mRNA vaccines and therapeutics at low cost against COVID-19 and a range of other diseases. The research project will boost the UK’s and the world’s ability to rapidly develop new vaccines in response to new variants of COVID-19 and also future pandemics.

Amid the fear of spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has appealed to citizens to avoid gatherings and parties during the upcoming Christmas festival and New Year, and warned of stringent action against those who flout rules.

The Irish Department of Health has reported 5,124 new confirmed Covid-19 cases, saying that about 52 per cent of them were due to the Omicron variant.

"It has taken less than two weeks for Omicron to become the dominant strain of Covid-19 in Ireland, revealing just how transmissible this virus is," Xinhua news agency quoted Tony Holohan, chief medical officer with the department, as saying in a statement on Sunday.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has called a virtual meeting on Monday for a discussion and presentation in wake of Omicron cases in the capital.

Four new cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus were reported in Gujarat on Sunday, which took the state's count of the persons infected with this strain to eleven, officials said.

The COVID-19 omicron variant is “just raging around the world,” the White House's top medical adviser said Sunday, and President Joe Biden is planning to give “a stark warning of what the winter will look like” for unvaccinated Americans.

Israel's prime minister on Sunday called on parents to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus as the new omicron variant showed signs of spreading, while authorities prepared to expand a travel ban to include the United States.

In a prime-time televised address, Naftali Bennett said the number of cases of the new variant remains relatively low — in part thanks to earlier moves to ban most foreigners from entering the country. But he said it was just a matter of time before the numbers begin to rise.