Decrease of 1,281 cases recorded in active COVID-19 caseload in span of 24 hours. (Representational image/Reuters /File photo)
Coronavirus Vaccine Registration, Coronavirus Omicron Variant Cases in India Live Updates: With 8,439 more people testing positive for COVID-19 in a day, India’s infection tally rose to 3,46,56,822 on Wednesday, while the count of active cases declined to 93,733, the lowest in 555 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 4,73,952, with 195 daily fatalities being recorded, according to the data updated at 8 am. The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been recorded below 10,000 for 12 straight days and less than 50,000 for 164 consecutive days now.
Study suggests Pfizer vaccine may only partially protect against Omicron
The Omicron variant of coronavirus can partially evade protection from two doses of vaccine made by Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech, Alex Sigal, the research head of a South African laboratory, said on Tuesday. However, the study, based on preliminary data that has not yet been peer-reviewed, showed recipients of two vaccine doses who had a prior infection were mostly able to neutralise the variant, suggesting booster doses could help fend off infection.
On Twitter, Sigal said there was “a very large drop” in neutralisation of Omicron, compared to an earlier variant. The lab tested blood from 12 people given two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, a manuscript posted on its website showed.
British drugmaker GSK said on Tuesday its antibody-based COVID-19 therapy with U.S. partner Vir Biotechnology is effective against all mutations of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, citing new data from early-stage studies.
The data, yet to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, shows that the companies’ treatment, sotrovimab, is effective against all 37 identified mutations to date in the spike protein, GSK said in a statement.
Allaying fears regarding the new Omicron variant of Coronavirus that has the world on tenterhooks, US scientist Anthony Fauci has said that early indicators suggest Omicron is not worse than the previous strains of the virus, and possibly milder. However, he admitted that it will still take weeks before the severity of the new Covid-19 variant Omicron can be judged.
Read More — Omicron Covid variant ‘almost certainly’ not more severe than Delta, says top US scientist Anthony Fauci
News agency AFP quoted US President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor as saying that the new variant is “clearly highly transmissible” — even more than the Delta variant, which is the current dominant global strain.
Four more international travellers admitted to New Delhi’s LNJP hospital
Four more international travellers were on Tuesday admitted to the Delhi government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan hospital’s special facility for isolating and treating those infected with the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, officials said.
Hospital authorities informed that all the four passengers who arrived on Tuesday are Indians. Suresh Kumar, LNJP’s Medical Director, said that there are a total of 30 people — 25 positive cases and five suspected cases — at the facility at present.
Delhi reported its first case of Omicron on Sunday — a 37-year-old fully-vaccinated man who arrived in the city from Tanzania. The man, a resident of Ranchi, travelled from Tanzania to Doha and from there, to Delhi on a Qatar Airways flight on December 2. He stayed in Johannesburg in South Africa for a week. He has mild symptoms.
Here are the latest and verified Covid-19 updates from India and around the globe: