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Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Maharashtra will implement quarantine measures from tomorrow, a day after it originally planned, to avoid confusion as several flights were already mid-air. The government mandated 7-day home isolation for all those who test negative on arrival. This is besides the mandatory institutional quarantine of 7 days for those arriving from ‘at risk nations’.
International passengers arriving from ‘at risk’ countries will be deplaned on priority and separate counters will be arranged for their checking. All such passengers will undergo a mandatory 7-day institutional quarantine and RT-PCR test to be carried out on days 2, 4 and 7 for them. If any of the tests are found to be positive, then the passenger will be shifted to a hospital. In case of all tests are found to be negative, the passengers will have to undergo a further 7 days of home quarantine.
The nations that are currently on the ‘at-risk’ list of India are European countries, including the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.
India jumped 19 spots ahead in the list of countries to be amid the pandemic, according to Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking.The country is now ranked 26th in the monthly snapshot, which measures where the virus is being handled the most effectively with the least social and economic upheaval. High levels of natural immunity and increased vaccination drives may have contributed to India’s ranking.
The Omicron coronavirus variant was present in Europe before the first cases were reported in South Africa, new data from the Netherlands showed on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Latin America reported its first two cases in Brazil. In the week since the new virus strain was reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions — most targeting southern African nations. But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday — as Canada expanded its restrictions to also include Egypt and Nigeria — that “blanket” travel bans risked doing more harm than good.
Re-opening of schools in several districts of Maharashtra have been postponed due to the Omicron variant scare. The Pune Municipal Corporation on Tuesday announced to postpone the reopening of schools for classes 1 to 7, till December 15. Nagpur Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B said that schools will not be opened for classes 1 to 7 till December 10. After that, the situation will be reviewed & a decision will be taken accordingly, he said.
Health officials in Brazil have reported the country’s first confirmed cases of the omicron variant in two travelers returning from South Africa, the first such cases in Latin America. The Sao Paulo state health secretariat said a 41-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman are in isolation. They had their tests taken on Nov. 25 and showed light symptoms of the disease at the time.
Unvaccinated vulnerable should postpone travel to areas with community transmission, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.
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