# Positive cases rise : As the year ends, India’s daily Covid-19 cases cross the 10,000-mark. Eight states, including Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are of particular concern. The Omicron tally hovers at 961.

# Lockdown blues : The decision to lockdown is not a popular one. A visual look at the Omicron conundrum: to lockdown or not

# Vaccines on wheels : Conundrums do not stop efforts to get vaccines around. For instance, mobile vaccination gains ground in villages and inaccessible territories. And some efforts in this direction are spotlighted here.

# Delhi cautions : Meanwhile State authorities take guard. Senior doctors in Delhi warn that Omicron may cause a mild infection, but there is a need to remain watchful as a community spread can still strain hospitals.

# Maharashtra brings on more curbs : Maharashtra Chief Secretary Debashish Chakrabarty issued orders late Thursday night imposing more restrictions on the number of attendees in marriages and public functions.

# Including Section 144 : The Covid-19 Task Force meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday discussed steps to curb the rapid spread of the Covid-19 and Omicron variant in Maharashtra. The meeting concluded that early decisions on restrictions must be taken considering the rise in the number of cases.

# No flying in : The West Bengal government on Thursday announced suspension of all direct flights coming from the United Kingdom to Kolkata with effect from January 3, in view of the rising number of Omicron cases. The suspension order will remain in effect until further orders, the State government said.

# Chennai’s spike : For the second consecutive day, Chennai on Thursday witnessed a spike in the number of daily Covid-19 cases to 397 as against 294 on Wednesday and 194 on Tuesday. The spike in the city led to increase in the number of daily infections in the State to 890 as against 739 on Wednesday and 619 on Tuesday.

# Connors on Covaxin : The Indian vaccine received some high-profile support as American tennis star Jimmy Connors urged the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to consider approval for Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. US-based Ocugen is the partner in the US that is pursuing approvals there.

# Covaxin in kids : Staying with Covaxin, Bharat Biotech has said Covaxin, its whole-virion inactivated Covid-19 vaccine candidate, has proven to be “safe, well-tolerated, and immunogenic” in paediatric subjects in phase II/III study.

# Hyderabad’s anti-viral launches : Optimus Pharma and Hetero Pharma have rolled out their versions of antiviral molnupiravir.

# Export recovery & disruptions : Indian exports of goods performed reasonably well in 2021, owing largely to a recovery in pandemic-hit global demand, but 2022 may prove challenging as the highly contagious Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus is threatening to disrupt supply chains once again.

# Now fourth dose : Internationally, Israel now has approved a fourth vaccine dose for people most vulnerable to Covid-19, becoming the first country to do so as it braces for a wave of infections fuelled by the Omicron variant.

# US cases rise: More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of Covid-19 in the US have soared to their highest level on record at over 2,65,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious Omicron variant.

# UK on AZ-Ox vaccine : The UK, on Thursday, is marking the one-year anniversary of the approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to protect against Covid-19, also manufactured and administered in India as Covishield as part of a tie-up with the Serum Institute of India (SII).

And with that, 2021 closes under the shadow of the SARS-CoV-2-induced pandemic.

Published on December 31, 2021