oppn parties Omicron Variant BF.7 Detected In India, Random Tests On International Passengers From Today

News Snippets

  • Calcutta HC asks why are MPs facing egg-pelting, in the mohua Moitra case, allows the MP to enter her constituency with police protection
  • Police find fingerprints and other evidence of both the two accused and the rape survivor inside the bus in the Delhi gang rape case
  • Abhishek Upadhyay, the journalist who exposed the embezzlement of Ram Mandir funds, has sought Supreme Court help as Ghaziabad Police have sought his digital footprint from X. He claimed that such information will compromise the sources who provided him the information
  • Supreme Court quashes 127 FIRs in 5 states against students who took part in CJP stir. In repsonse, CJP cancels the September 5 march from India Gate to Delhi Police headquarters
  • TCS buys Best Buy's GCC operations in India, pips Accenture to the post in a deal worth around Rs 2000cr
  • To avoid stiff tariff, Aun Pharma offers to supply cheaper drugs at Most Favoured Nation pricing to US Medicaid programme
  • 5-member NCLT bench stays Subhash Chandra's Rs 6.5cr repayment order
  • Reliance entered the icecream space by launching Bombay Creamery
  • Copyright office rejects AI system as artwork author, says Parliament needs to make the legal position clear
  • GST collection jumps 15% in August to Rs 199853cr on the back of 29% jump in tax from imports
  • Asian Games: Japan Cricket Association says participating cricketing teams can arrange their own hotels as the Games are not directly under JCA
  • T20s versus Afghanistan: Bumrah and Samson return, Hardik still unfit. Sooryavanshi keeps his place
  • Duleep Trophy: South Zome have upper hand in the other semifinal
  • Duleep Trophy: East Zone beat Central Zone by four wickets to enter the final
  • PM Modi asks youth to make social media content on drug abuse
Duleep Trophy: South Zone beat North Zone by 7 wickets to set up the final clash with East Zone ////// Air Marshall (Retd) Jeetendra Sharma appointed the first CEO of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya
oppn parties
Omicron Variant BF.7 Detected In India, Random Tests On International Passengers From Today

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-12-21 14:01:08

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

BF.7 is not a short code some college girls use to refer to their boyfriend number 7. It is the dreaded Omicron variant that has been driving the surge in fresh Covid cases in China. The bad news is that three cases of BF.7 infection were detected in India in October. Two of these cases were from Gujarat and the other from Odisha. The Centre had yesterday advised states to send all Covid infection samples to Insacog labs for genome sequencing. It is not immediately known whether persons found infected with BF.7 variant had retruned from abroad or isolation and contact tracing was done after the infection was detected. 

The government has ordered random sampling of passengers arriving from China and some other countries and this has begun at most international airports in the country from today. The move came after Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a review meeting with ministry officials to assess the Covid situation in the country. Mandaviya also warned that Covid is not over yet and asked the people to remain alert.

Although experts have said that there is no need to panic, yet it is in one's own interest to follow Covid protocols as prescribed by the government - go out of the house if it is absolutely necessary, avoid crowded places, wear masks and sanitize hands frequently. Also, do not ignore symptoms like fever and cough and cold and get a test done if in doubt. If Covid is detected, remain isolated for at least 7 days but preferably for 14 days. Remember, although it may sound like a cliche, it is better to be safe than be sorry. Although people in India have hybrid immunity (through natural infection and vaccination) against Covid, some newer variants may pierce the vaccine shield. Hence, it is better to remain alert and not let your guard down.