PM Modi to chair meet on COVID-19 situation, vaccination with top officials today

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meet on the situation relating to COVID-19 and vaccination with top government officials today at 10:30 am.

Amid rising concerns about the new COVID-19 variant ‘Omicron’ first detected in South Africa, India has added several countries to the list from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing for infection.

Countries from where the travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India include Hong Kong, Israel, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, countries in Europe including the UK.

This variant is reported to have a significantly high number of mutations, and thus, has serious public health implications for the country, in view of recently relaxed visa restrictions and opening up of international travel.

Meanwhile, India on Saturday reported 8,318 new cases of COVID-19, 465 deaths in the last 24 hours.

The active cases in the country on Saturday were 1,07,019, while the total recoveries mounted to 3,39,88,797.

The death toll due to coronavirus in India has reached 4,67,933.

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 260.5 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 5.18 million and vaccination to over 7.55 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

News Credit: India TV News