Coronavirus Live Updates | PM Modi reviews COVID situation, chairs high-level meet amid China's BF.7 COVID surge

Sources cited by ANI news agency said that Indian does not have any direct flights from China to India or from India to China but as of now, there is no such order issued to stop connecting flights to India which is coming via China. Ministry of Civil Aviation will act as per final decision that will come from MoHFW, govt sources added.
 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressed the public amid China's COVID surge. Check speech: 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while addressing the public over the COVID situation urged people to take booster dose. He said that Covid cases are rising in China and several other countries. "It has BF.7 variant. We don't have a single case of that variant in Delhi. So there's no need to worry. We are doing genome sequencing," said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. "We have 8,000 beds for Covid in Delhi. Now, we aim to prepare 36,000 beds pertaining to Covid. We have a storage capacity of 928 mt tonne oxygen in Delhi," he added. 
 

Since there had been an increase in Covid instances in several countries, many trade associations around Delhi have urged store owners to use sanitizers, wear masks, and adhere to social distancing. Some of them have also scheduled meetings to consider their next steps out of concern that the potential spike here may negatively affect their business.
 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviews the situation related to COVID-19 in the country at a high-level meeting. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also attended the meet. 

Taking steps to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Agra authorities have decided to not permit visitors inside the iconic Taj Mahal without testing for COVID. Indian states are ramping up measures after a sudden increase in a number of COVID cases in China. 

MEA  spokesperson Arindam bagchi said that India is keeping an eye on the Covid situation in China. "We have always helped other countries as the pharmacy of the world. We are yet to issue a travel advisory but people should follow local guidelines in the country where they're living," he added. 

Indian Medical Association (IMA) has issued an advisory over COVID. The association has advised that it is necessary to wear a mask in public places and maintain social distancing. It also guided people to keep washing hands with sanitizer and soap and avoid going to political and social meetings and avoiding international travel. "If you are suffering from problems like fever, sore throat, cough or loose motion etc., then go to the doctor. Get the Covid vaccination done as soon as possible, which also includes the precautionary dose," IMA added. 

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has held a meeting of Team-9 officials over COVID situation in the state. CM told officials to create awareness about mask usage in crowded and public spaces. Furthermore, he instructed them to ramp up the conduction of genome sequencing saying every positive case should go through the process. He also guided the officials to increase pace of COVID testing an precaution dose. 

In light of the increasing number of COVID cases in China and other parts of the world, Indian Health Ministry has asked states to increase genome sequencing for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. 
 

Germany on Wednesday made an announcement that it had sent its first batch of BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to China to allow German nationals in China to get a shot amid a surge in cases. 
 

The United States on Tuesday extended help to China by offering to share vaccines with the country amid a new COVID wave owing to BF.7 Omicron variant. Washington said that containing the COVID outbreak is in the interest of the world. However, it is unlikely that China would accept the offer as it uses its homegrown vaccines. 
 

As part of its zero Covid strategies, China has set rigorous health restrictions since 2020. However, following historic protests against the stern regulations, China halted the majority of those measures two weeks ago. Since then, there have been an unprecedented number of cases, fueling concerns about a high death rate among the elderly, who are particularly susceptible. This latest COVID wave is of Omicron variant BF.7.
 

Indian Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a meeting with senior officials to take stock of the COVID situation in the nation. Post the meeting, Mandaviya urged the people to wear masks in public places and keep their gaurds up. The health minister noted that COVID-19 is not over yet and exuded confidence saying that India is ready to tackle any situation.
 

COVID virus has mutated many times since the beginning of 2020. The Omicron variants are purportedly known to evade the immunological response from the majority of the currently available vaccinations however, it does prevent deaths, as per reports. 
 

The XBB COVID variant combines multiple strains of the omicron variant and other COVID-19 variants. This is a recombinant variant which is the most common one in India. As per reports, the XBB variant accounted for 65.6 per cent of all cases in the month of November.
 

Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Medical Education of Karnataka K Sudhakar said on Wednesday that the state government will kick off the screening of international passengers at Bengaluru airport in light of an upsurge in COVID cases in some parts of the world. 

As per official health data, Maharashtra has an active tally of 135 cases as on Thursday. There has been no death reported in the past 24 hours in the state. Meanwhile, Mumbai has recorded 8 new COVID cases. 
 

According to the state-wise data by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, active cases in Delhi stand at 27. Additionally, the capital also reported one death. Covid positivity rate has been recorded 0.19 per cent. 
 

After India reported four cases of BF.7, a sub-variant responsible for China's new COVID wave, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to chair a meeting to review the COVID situation in the country.