LIVE: Children aged 15-18, frontline workers to get vaccine shots, says PM

In his address to the nation, PM Modi said that frontline health workers will be given supplementary dose from Jan 10

7:25 PM

Amit Shah inaugurates 'Bharat Darshan Park' in Delhi

7:05 PM

Kerala sees 2,404 new Covid cases

6:40 PM

Delhi reports 249 new Covid cases in a day, 38% more than yesterday

6:38 PM

Mumbai sees 757 new Covid cases

6:28 PM

Kerala reports one more case of Omicron

5:27 PM

Night curfew to be in force from tomorrow in Assam

5:21 PM

22 farm bodies in Punjab announce political front, to contest state polls

4:53 PM

33 medical students of a medical college in Kolar test Covid positive

4:41 PM

Rajasthan reports 21 new 'Omicron' cases

Rajasthan has reported 21 new cases of 'Omicron', taking the number of people infected with the new variant of COVID-19 to 43, an official said.

 

Of these, 11 are from Jaipur, six from Ajmer and three from Udaipur. One of the patients is from Maharashtra. Results from National Institute of Virology Pune showed all of them positive for Omicron, a spokesperson of the health department said on Saturday.

3:34 PM

100% eligible population of Ambala has been vaccinated with both doses

1:58 PM

Important to ensure that nobody is able to harm country's unity: PM Modi

1:26 PM

India will see Omicron surge but cases will be mild, vaccines will help: Angelique Coetzee

India will see a surge in Omicron-driven Covid cases and a high positivity rate but the infection will hopefully be mild in most people as is being seen in South Africa, says Dr Angelique Coetzee who first identified the variant.

The chairperson of the South African Medical Association also said existing vaccines will definitely control the contagion but those unvaccinated are at 100 per cent "risk".

"Existing vaccines will greatly help reduce the spread of the Omicron variant," Coetzee told PTI in a phone interview from Pretoria.

1:19 PM

Diesel, petrol prices unchanged on Saturday

Oil marketing companies have kept the prices of diesel and petrol unchanged across major Indian cities since November 3 when the Centre and some states reduced duties on them.

 

Accordingly, diesel and petrol prices in Delhi stood at Rs 86.67 per litre and Rs 95.41 per litre on Saturday, respectively.

 

In the financial capital Mumbai, the rates were unchanged at Rs 94.14 and Rs 109.98.

 

Prices also remained static in Kolkata at Rs 89.79 and Rs 104.67.

 

In Chennai too, they remained untouched at Rs 91.43 and Rs 101.40.

1:03 PM

No 'Delmicron' virus yet, time to fight Omicron: Health experts

As the debate rises in India over a new Coronavirus strain being called 'Delmicron', leading health experts said on Saturday advised people not to pay heed to rumours and wait for the global health agencies like the World Health Organisation (WHO) or US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to confirm or deny the presence of such Covid variant.

Several news reports talking about 'Delmicron' surfaced this week in India, quoting Dr Shashank Joshi, a member of Maharashtra's C-19 task force, who said: "Delmicron, the twin spikes of Delta and Omicron, in Europe and US, has led to a mini-tsunami of cases."

There is no such Covid variant as of now, and there is no information either on another mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus after Omicron, which is spreading wildly worldwide.

12:43 PM

India can see surge in Covid-19 cases by end of January 2022, says KIMC's Dr Sambit

India can see a surge in Covid-19 cases by the end of January 2022, a Hyderabad-based doctor warned.

"We expect a surge in COVID-19 numbers by end of January because we are no different from the world. We will face what the world is facing," Dr Sambit, Director (Medical) of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Hyderabad said.