One of the private eye care hospitals in Delhi has reported 1,032 cases of conjunctivitis in Delhi-NCR and 1,521 cases pan India.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday asked the public not to panic about COVID-19, but be alert and follow the directives issued by the government from time to time.

It's expected that INSACOG will be once again releasing a bulletin from next week on updates about the types of variants present in India.

"The COVID-19 cases are rising, but hospitalization and deaths are still less," said sources.

After confirmation of the first monkeypox death in the country by the National Institute of Virology, health experts advised strengthening the surveillance to avoid silent transmission of monkeypox.

'If a fourth wave comes it will be a total surprise to me'

According to sources close to ANI, "Bharat Biotech has informed Union health ministry that it will rectify the issues pointed out by WHO in 15 to 20 days." "World Health Organisation (WHO)'s suspension is not related to safety or efficacy issues but limited only to supply for United Nations agencies."

"It will not cause another surge. BA.2 is not capable of infecting people who had BA.1. It's not a new virus or strain. BA.2 is a sub-lineage of Omicron," Dr Jayadevan said.

The company claims that when the Nitric Oxide Nasal is sprayed over nasal mucosa it acts as a physical and chemical barrier against the virus.

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is in the community transmission stage in India and it has also become dominant in multiple metros, where new cases have been rising exponentially, said Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium.

He said that southern states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will see the current wave peak next week.

The Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals has submitted phase 2 data of mRNA vaccine and has also completed the recruitment of phase 3 data.

'There will be many Omicron cases in India, but much less hospitalisation and death than you had in the Delta wave'

"In children, fortunately, infections with SARS-CoV-2 are generally not severe. There is a risk of long COVID, there is a risk of a very, very rare condition called MISC (Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome) but by and large healthy children have nothing," said Dr Gagandeep Kang, leading Indian virologist.

He explained, "Children between the age of 12 and 18 years, particularly those in the age group of 15 to 18 years, are very much like adults. Our research within the country also says that almost two-thirds of the deaths below 18 years which occurred due to COVID in India are within this age group. So, this decision was mainly taken to protect the adolescents."

The elderly population above 60 years of age with comorbidities who are eligible for COVID-19 'precautionary doses' will have to take a medical certificate to take the dose, informed chief executive officer of National Health Authority Dr RS Sharma

Daily COVID-19 caseload in India that is currently around 7,500 infections is expected to increase once the Omicron starts displacing Delta as the dominant variant, informed members of the national COVID-19 supermodel committee and predicted the third wave in India early year.

Dr Mishra further explained the effect of hybrid immunity on the vaccinated population and said that it is likely to give protection to people along with the Indian vaccines administered.

Omicron very different from Delta, Beta COVID variants, says South African doctor Angelique Coetzee.

The Serum Institute of India is the first Indian company to seek approval for the COVID-19 booster dose.