Covid India News LIVE Updates: Contacts of COVID patients do not need testing unless identified as high risk based on age or comorbidities, says ICMR

Mumbai reports 13,648 COVID cases, 27,214 recoveries, and 5 deaths today

AIIMS Director Randeep Singh Guleria takes ‘precautionary dose’

COVID-19 | Punjab reports 3,969 new cases, 885 recoveries and 7 deaths

Omicron: All elective surgeries to be curtailed in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital till further orders, as per hospital administration

There have been some media reports alleging that PSA plants installed in Chhattisgarh through PM-CARES funds are not being maintained well. Such media reports are fallacious and ill-informed and not based on facts

– Govt of India

A total of 67 students have tested positive in Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad in the last 10 days

Bihar reports 4,737 new COVID19 cases in the state today

Active cases stand at 20,938: Bihar Health Department

COVID-19: 11,698 new cases in Karnataka, 4 deaths

Gujarat reported 6,097 fresh COVID cases, 1,539 and two deaths in the last 24 hours

Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) reports 1307 active COVID cases across all formations including 250 personnel with comorbidities or other health issues who are hospitalised: Senior CISF officer

Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai tests positive for COVID-19 “with mild symptoms”

“My health is fine, I am under home quarantine,” he tweeted.

Fresh advisory for testing COVID samples

ICMR says contacts of COVID patients do not need testing unless identified as high risk based on age or comorbidities

Union Minister Ajay Bhatt tests positive for COVID-19 “with mild symptoms”, isolates himself at home

West Bengal reports 19,286 new COVID cases, 8,187 recoveries, and 16 deaths today

Tamil Nadu reports 13,990 new cases, 2,547 recoveries, and 11 deaths, in the last 24 hours

Active cases 62,767

Delhi sees 17 more deaths due to Covid, 19,166 new cases in a day. Positivity rate soars to 25 per cent

Let there be no lapses in our preparedness as we battle this surge of the pandemic. Holistic synergy between Centre and States is most vital for seamless and effective pandemic management

– Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya to health ministers of 5 states and one UT

Mumbai’s Dharavi reported 97 fresh COVID cases, taking total active cases in the area to 943: BMC

Delhi Health Department was advised to make adequate arrangements for additional manpower in hospitals and to scale up the vaccination efforts including for those in age group of 15-18 years: Delhi LG

Today’s DDMA meeting decided to close restaurants & bars & to allow ‘take away’ facility only. It was also decided to allow operation of only one weekly market per day per zone: Delhi LG

Omicron: Physical classes for students of up to 12th standard to remain closed till January 16 in Uttarakhand, online classes to continue

Punjab: Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress party gets hockey stick and ball as the election symbol

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar tests positive for COVID-19

Chinese port city reports 41 virus cases, amid mass testing

Authorities in the Chinese city of Tianjin on Monday reported 41 COVID-19 infections out of 3.4 million residents tested since the discovery of two local omicron cases.

25 international passengers offloaded at Delhi airport after testing positive for COVID-19

Around 25 international passengers were de-boarded at Delhi airport on Monday after testing positive for COVID-19. Maximum number of passengers were scheduled to travel to Dubai by SpiceJet Airlines.

Karnataka: Upset over rejection of his loan application, a man allegedly set the bank on fire in Haveri district on Sunday

EC should look at every aspect. The poor & the people in rural areas don’t have access to these facilities. EC should call an all-party meeting to reach a consensus regarding the campaigning

– SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on EC’s guidelines for poll campaigning

Kerala reports 5,797 new COVID cases, 2796 recoveries, and 19 deaths today

Mansukh Mandaviya to meet state health ministers

Coordination with authorities has helped ensuring the safety and security of Indian nationals. They are advised to follow local security instructions and get in touch with the Embassy of India for any assistance

– Ministry of External Affairs

India is closely following recent developments in Kazakhstan. We express our deepest condolences to families of innocent victims who have lost lives in the violence. As a close and friendly partner of Kazakhstan, we look forward to an early stabilization of the situation

– MEA

Derek O’Brien requests meeting on Tek Fog

Punjab: Sonu Sood’s sister joins Congress

Sonu Sood is known all over the world for his humanity and kindness & today a member from that family is joining us. She is an educated woman: Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu

Bihar | 32 samples were tested for coronavirus variant in the genomic sequencing lab, out of which 27 samples have tested positive for Omicron, four for Delta, and one for an unknown variant of the virus

– Director, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna

146 new Omicron cases have been confirmed today taking the overall tally in Karnataka to 479: State Health minister Dr Sudhakar K

Kerala’s Omicron case tally reaches 345 with 17 fresh cases reported in the state today

Omicron: Haryana Govt shuts down all schools and colleges till January 26, online classes to continue, says CM ML Khattar

Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, denounces three new convictions against ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi: AFP

Around 1000 personnel of Delhi Police have contracted COVID-19 since January 1, 2022

All are in home quarantined and are recovering well: Delhi Police

At present, we have around 5,000 normal beds and about 8,500 oxygen beds. The number of beds with oxygen, HDU, ICU, ventilator support is about 5,000. There can be around 2 lakh active cases in the state during peak time

– Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has a total of 931 active COVID cases across all formations

Personnel have been either in home quarantine or in COVID care units: Senior CRPF officer

UK Prime Minister Johnson says looking at possibility of reducing quarantine period to 5 days from 7 days

Chandigarh administration directs principals of all Govt and private schools to inform all students enrolled in their schools (in age group of 15 years to 18 years) about available option of COVID vaccination; says will take appropriate action in case of noncompliance

Rajnath Singh tests positive for Covid-19

Punjab and Haryana High Court grants anticipatory bail to Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Bikram Singh Majithia in the drug case; orders him to join the investigation

BCCI announces postponement of knockout stage matches of Cooch Behar Trophy following some positive COVID-19 cases within the team environment

5-10% of active cases needed hospitalisation so far

The 14th round of senior highest military commander level (SHMCL) talks will take place at Chushul-Moldo meeting point, on the Chinese side on January 12 morning. Indian side is looking forward to constructive dialogue to resolve the balance friction areas: Indian Army officials

Schools in Nepal to remain closed till January end, says its Education Ministry

Impact of different types of mask on Covid-19

I am absolutely fit: India captain Virat Kohli ahead of third Test against South Africa

Congress MP KC Venugopal writes to President Ram Nath Kovind accusing Kerala Governor & State Govt of dragging the President’s office into their “political disputations” involving Kerala Univerity VC

Uttarakhand | Section 144 has been imposed in Chamoli district from 8th January in order to conduct the Assembly elections in a peaceful manner, says District Magistrate Himanshu Khurana

Myanmar: Deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to four years in prison

Tamil Nadu Govt issues SOP for Jallikattu events, allows only 150 spectators or 50% of seating capacity (whichever is less)

National Commission for Women chairperson writes to Twitter India “to immediately block actor Siddharth’s tweet on shuttler Saina Nehwal, calls it “misogynist and outrageous.”

Around 1000 Delhi Police personnel, including Public Relations Officer and Additional Commissioner Chinmoy Biswal have tested positive for COVID19. All infected personnel are under quarantine: Delhi Police

Delhi | COVID cases rising for last 8-9 days (nationally); cases in Delhi, Mumbai almost 4-5 times more. Hopefully, a sharp decline will be there in peak as we saw in South Africa when cases soared suddenly & then declined: Dr Sandeep Nayar, HOD, Respiratory diseases BLK Hospital

Kerala | CM Pinarayi Vijayan following a COVID-19 review meeting has decided to limit the no. of people who can attend weddings and funerals to a maximum of 50.