As teens get first jabs, Delhi, Mumbai record more cases

Amid rapidly rising cases of Covid-19, physical attendance of government servants below level of undersecretary has been restricted to 50 per cent.

New Delhi: Amid a steady rise in Covid-19 cases in India, cities across the country kick-started the Covid vaccination for teenagers, aged between 15 to 18 years, on Monday. The Union Health Ministry had announced that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin will be administered to eligible children — in two doses 28 days apart.

Delhi, which has been witnessing a steady rise in Covid-19 cases, reported 4,099 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the positivity rate to 6.46% from 4.59% a day ago. One more person died out of the infection.

Mumbai, on the other hand recorded 7,928 fresh Covid-19 cases pushing the test positivity rate of 16.39 per cent. The city also recorded two related deaths in the past 24 hours, a BMC health bulletin said. Kolkata reported 2801 cases, while Bengaluru reported 1041 cases and Chennai reported 876 cases.

Amid rapidly rising cases of Covid-19, physical attendance of government servants below level of undersecretary has been restricted to 50 per cent.

Persons with disabilities and pregnant women employees have also been exempted from attending office. In addition, the Personnel Ministry on Monday suspended biometric attendance for government employees till January 31, an official order stated.

Meanwhile, India on Monday reported 33,750 fresh Covid-19 cases and 123 deaths. With 10,846 recoveries, the country’s active caseload stood at 1,45,582.

According to the Union Ministry of Health, the Omicron tally in the country has reached 1,700, of which 639 have recovered or been discharged. Maharashtra topped the count with 510 Omicron cases, followed by Delhi with 351 cases.

As per genome sequencing reports of Dec 30-31, Omicron found in 84 per cent of Covid samples tested, according to Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain. –(Agencies)