We bring you some of the top stories on Covid-19:

#Waiting to exhale

Health authorities and the medical fraternity are keeping a close watch on the Covid-19 graph in Delhi and Mumbai and its signals for the rest of the country in terms of a peak or plateau of infections.

#India waiver proposal

The WTO General Council, in its meeting this week, discussed India’s proposal to hold a virtual Ministerial Conference on the WTO’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including a proposed waiver of the necessary intellectual property protections under the TRIPS agreement.

#Delhi government diktat

The Delhi government has decided to tighten curbs in the capital city due to rising cases. As per Delhi Disaster Management Authority’s latest order, all private offices have been ordered to close down except those that are in the exempted category. Earlier private offices were allowed to work at 50 per cent capacity.

#Gangasagar mela goes ahead

The Gangasagar Mela, which draws lakhs of pilgrims to the Sagar Island in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, may well turn out to be a “super spreader event” leading to a massive spurt in cases.

#More jobs

Amid layoffs worldwide in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, a leading electronics retailer in Kerala, myG, bucked the trend to create more jobs during the period. myG, which had 83 stores when the pandemic hit, opened 10 more subsequently and hired over 200 persons.

#Cupid’s active

The pandemic might have shrunk the size of the weddings but it could not stop Indian singles in their pursuit of finding a soulmate. According to online matchmaking platform BharatMatrimony, Indian singles have sent 177 interest every minute, accounting for over a billion interest to the profiles of their interest in 2021.

#From the Specials-Planning through a pandemic

A new year should be a time for new beginnings. But with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 driving a global surge in cases, 2022 starts for the pharmaceutical industry with much of the same, as they implement skills picked up over the last two years and “forecast under uncertainty”.

#And visually

A look at the global positivity rates.

#From the international arena

China cancellations: US airlines say China has blocked more than a dozen recent and future flights from entering the country, which has been tightening already-strict Covid-19 travel restrictions. China ordered the cancellations after some passengers tested positive for Covid-19 on flights that arrived in China in late December, according to industry officials.

#Russia’s surge

Russian officials on Tuesday sounded the alarm about a looming surge of coronavirus infections due to the highly contagious Omicron variant, but stopped short of announcing new restrictions in a hard-hit country where very few limits are in place.

#Lockdown, again

Millions in China locked down again on Tuesday, exactly two years after Beijing reported its first Covid-19 death. The highly-transmissible Omicron variant has ripped through countries at a breakneck pace, forcing governments to impose fresh measures and scramble to roll out vaccine booster shots.

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