Coronavirus LIVE Updates: 3-Year-Old Among 7 New Omicron Cases Found In Maharashtra

Coronavirus LIVE Updates: Overall 25 Omicron cases have been detected in the country so far.New Delhi: A 3-year-old child was among seven new patients with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 reported in Maharashtra on Friday, taking India’s tally to 32 on a day when the government warned about weakening coronavirus precautions like mask-wearing.”Overall 25 Omicron cases have been detected in the country so far. All cases have mild symptoms. Omicron cases account for less than 0.04 per cent of total variants detected,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Union Health Ministry said at a briefing on Friday.Since December 1st, 93 international passengers have tested positive for COVID-19. Of these, 83 are from countries that have been designated “at-risk” given the Omicron breakout and 13 from other countries, Lav Agarwal said, adding that 59 countries have reported Omicron cases so far.India’s daily new COVID-19 cases have hovered around 10,000 for the past few weeks, taking the total to 34.67 million, more than 474,000 of whom have died.Here are the LIVE Updates on Coronavirus cases in India:Drug Regulator Seeks More Data Over Approval For Covishield Booster: ReportAn expert panel of India’s central drug authority which reviewed Serum Institute’s application for approval of Covishield as booster dose against COVID-19 on Friday recommended that the firm submit local clinical trial data and proposal along with justification for the booster dose approval, official sources said.On December 1, Prakash Kumar Singh, director, Government and Regulatory affairs at Serum Institute of India (SII), had sought approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for Covishield as booster dose, citing adequate stock of the vaccine in the country and a demand for a booster shot due to the emergence of new coronavirus variants.Mr Singh had referred to the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency giving a go-ahead to the booster doses of AstraZeneca ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in the application.Switzerland Approves Covid Vaccination Of Children Aged Between 5 And 11 The Swiss medicines agency Swissmedic on Friday approved the vaccination of children aged between five and 11 with Pfizer-Biontech’s Comirnaty vaccine.”Clinical trial results show that the vaccine is safe and effective in this age group,” it said in a statement.The Comirnaty vaccine is administered in two doses of ten microgrammes three weeks apart.An ongoing clinical trial of more than 1,500 people “shows that the Covid-19 vaccine offers almost complete protection against serious illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 5 to 11-year-olds”, it said.”Side effects tended to occur less frequently than in adolescents or adults. They included pain at the injection site and tiredness, or less frequently headache, aching limbs or fever,” the agency added.



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