-The Hindu India records 2,59,291 new cases on Thursday Like every wave in the past, cases fuelled by the Omicron variant of COVID-19 have initially spread only in the urban areas. However, many rural and semi-rural places recorded a sharp spike in infections in the past week. At the start of this year, 50% of the cases were from urban centres such as mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. However, the share reduced to...

-The Telegraph  The trends so far are in line with observations from South Africa, where demand has been lower during omicron-driven surge The demand for oxygen beds and ventilators for Covid-19 patients appears for now decoupled from the steep rise in cases and hospitalisation, doctors said on Sunday, citing early observations over the past week in Calcutta, Delhi and mumbai. The counts of hospitalised Covid-19 patients have increased in all three cities, but...

-PTI/ The New Indian Express Private offices have also been asked to rationalize the number of employees coming to work by allowing work from home and staggering working hours. mumbai: Tightening restrictions in the face of surging COVID-19 cases, the Maharashtra Government on Saturday prohibited movement in public in groups of five or more from 5 in the morning to 11 at night, effective January 10 midnight. Further, no movement will be allowed...

-The Free Press Journal Recently, former union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had separately met the union cooperation minister Amit Shah demanding a relief in income tax demands worth Rs 9,500 crore at the all India level of which Rs 8,000 crore were alone from Maharashtra cooperative sugar industry. Sugar Cooperative Factories in Maharashtra have received a major relief after the Centre has waived income tax demands...

-The Telegraph Omicron makes up 80 per cent of cases in Delhi, mumbai; Bengal logs highest test positivity rate India is in the middle of a Covid-19 surge that’s rising exponentially and can’t be reined in by booster shots at this stage, says a leading virologist. “For this wave, we are too late. Nothing will now rein it in,” says virologist T. Jacob John. We could see the Omicron surge play out two...