
Covid-19 In India: Do's And Don'ts To Stay Safe
India recorded 564 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours. The total number of active Covid-19 cases stands at 4,866 as of Thursday morning, with Kerala remaining the most affected State, followed by Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Delhi, according to the Union Health Ministry data. At least 7 deaths were reported during the current resurgence of Covid-19 infection.
No need to panic, said experts
Doctors and health officials in India and across the world have said that the new Covid variants are not serious threats but are spreading faster. Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Dr Rajiv Behl also said that the severity of infections is currently generally mild and there is no cause for worry.
He also mentioned that Omicron Sub-variants LF.7, XFG, JN.1, and NB. 1.8.1 are currently circulating and are not severe.
Why should you do?
As cases are rising rapidly in India, it is important for all to follow safety precautions that can help you stay safe. Here are some government guidelines you should follow:
Do's
Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand rub with at least 60% alcohol.
Wear a mask
Cover your nose and mouth with a handkerchief/tissue while sneezing and coughing.
Throw used tissues into closed bins immediately after use.
Avoid mass gatherings and crowded places.
Wash your hands before touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
See a doctor if you feel unwell. Do not ignore symptoms like fever, difficulty breathing and cough. While visiting doctor wear a mask/cloth to cover your mouth and nose.
Don'ts
Avoid touching surfaces that might be contaminated.
Do not ignore symptoms and delay testing.
Do not come in close contact with anyone who is sick.
Avoid shaking hands
Don't allow visitors at home or visit someone else's home.
As of May 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies LF.7 and NB.1.8 sub-variants as Variants Under Monitoring, not as Variants of Concern or Variants of Interest. But these are spreading rapidly and a rise in hospitalisation has been observed in China and other parts of Asia.
Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.
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India Gazette
2 hours ago
- India Gazette
Healthy India can be ensured through healthy food habits and lifestyle: JP Nadda on World Food Safety Day
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 7 (ANI): On the occasion of World Food Safety Day 2025, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, JP Nadda, delivered the keynote address at a special programme themed 'Stop Obesity by Eating Safe and Healthy' at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru on Saturday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a release. JP Nadda said that a healthy India is necessary for Viksit Bharat, and that can be ensured through the right types of food, healthy food habits, and lifestyle. Organized by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, the programme focused on the critical role of food safety and nutrition in preventing non-communicable diseases such as obesity, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to promote preventive health through traditional and wholesome dietary practices. Minister of Medical Education and Skill Development Department, Government of Karnataka, Dr Sharan Prakash R Patil, Members of Parliament, Lahar Singh Siroya and P C Mohan, Union Health Secretary, Punya Salila Srivastava and senior officers of the Government of India also attended the event. In his keynote address, Nadda reiterated the Prime Minister's emphasis on preventing obesity and prioritising wellness. Emphasizing the urgent need to address the rising burden of obesity and non-communicable diseases, Nadda stated that 'the awareness initiative to stop obesity is a timely step towards educating people about the health risks of poor dietary habits and encouraging them to embrace balanced, nutritious food' and underlined that 'for a Viksit Bharat, a healthy India is necessary and that can be ensured through the right types of food, healthy food habits and healthy lifestyle.' The Union Health Minister underlined the importance of safe, healthy, and nutritious food and the benefits of a balanced diet that can ensure increased immunity. Nadda reaffirmed the commitment to this year's World Food Safety Day theme, 'Food Safety: Science in Action.' Recognising the alarming trend of rising obesity, citing the ICMR-India Diabetes (INDIAB) study, Nadda stated that 'from 2008 to 2020, obesity in urban India has increased by 39.6 per cent, while it has increased 23.1 per cent in rural areas.' He also cited another study that projects that by 2050, 1/3 of the country's population will be obese. Underlining the challenge of unhealthy foods and dietary habits, especially in urban areas, Nadda stressed that children are the most vulnerable group when it comes to adulterated foods, as they are attracted towards unhealthy foods and their advertisements. To meet this challenge, he called for ensuring awareness at a young age to bring a better impact. Highlighting the negative impact of ultra-processed foods on health, Nadda urged everyone to be careful of their food habits and adhere to nutritious food that brings healthy changes to one's mind and body. He further added that 'eating right is a right that one must exercise. Eating right and ensuring awareness about it is a collective responsibility of the government, industry, academia, and individuals.' Nadda urged all stakeholders to respond to the Prime Minister's clarion call and reduce oil consumption by 10 per cent and salt intake, which can be ensured through awareness of the right food habits. Nadda also commended the innovative behavioural change strategy i.e., the widespread promotion of Sugar and Oil Boards across schools, workplaces and public institutions, developed by FSSAI under the aegis of Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare that serve as powerful visual advocacy tools, displaying clear, relatable information about hidden sugars and fats in everyday food items. By embedding these messages in common spaces- canteens, corridors, meeting rooms- they subtly nudge individuals to make healthier choices. He also suggested that to make the initiative more effective, calorie intake should also be highlighted along with sugar, and he urged the incorporation of awareness in the curriculum. Emphasising the importance of traditional foods, Nadda urged all to 'go for traditional foods that include foods like millets and revive them to ensure health for all.' He further highlighted the importance of informed choices and lifestyle changes and remarked that food safety habits are a continuous process that needs to be made a part of our lives and turned into a movement to 'eat right' while adhering to food safety norms.' (ANI)

The Hindu
3 hours ago
- The Hindu
What is the COVID-19 situation in India?
The story so far: After a rise in COVID-19 numbers in Southeast Asia, India has started to show an uptick in the number of cases over the last couple of weeks. The numbers slowly grew to hit 5,755 cases (as of Saturday 5:30 pm) as per the Ministry of Health's COVID-19 dashboard. What is the medical advice? The same dashboard states that 5,484 people have been discharged. Even as the numbers rise, doctors and experts have repeatedly stated that seasonal spikes and dips in COVID-19 cases are to be expected, since it had moved from a pandemic to an endemic infection. The COVID-19 virus is co-circulating with other seasonal viruses, they point out, and currently the dominant strain is an Omicron sub-variant from which the subcontinent has adequate immunity. The cases have not been severe; from the point of transmissibility too, the R0 (reproductive number) is not that worrying to indicate a high contagion factor. What is the situation in the country today? As of now, the variants of COVID-19 doing the rounds in India are descendants of the Omicron variant, first reported in November 2021. The emerging sub-variants, NB.1.8.1 and LF.7, driving the current COVID-19 surge are descendants of JN.1, a sub-lineage of the Omicron BA.2.86 variant. In Kerala for instance, a senior health department official said that 'almost all of the samples sent for whole genome sequencing from the State have shown that the circulating virus variant is LF.1, one of the descendants of Omicron, the immune evasiveness of which is quite well-known.' Cases have mostly been mild, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The reported symptoms are those of the common cold or seasonal flu, including fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, headache, fatigue, body aches, and loss of appetite. P. Senthur Nambi, senior consultant, Infectious Diseases, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, said most of the COVID-19 patients he had seen so far have done well. 'Most of them had only an upper respiratory infection. These patients were managed based on their symptoms and most of them did not require any COVID specific antiviral medications. Prior exposure to the infection, the effects of the vaccines taken or a combination of both factors with vaccine-induced antibodies could be playing a protective role,' he explained. 'The key difference with these new strains,' said Sujan Bardhan, consultant (Tuberculosis and chest diseases), Narayana Hospital, R.N. Tagore Hospital, Kolkata, 'is their speed, not their severity. Hospitals are well-prepared and the healthcare system remains under no immediate strain. Nonetheless, the importance of basic preventive measures cannot be overstated.' What is the vaccine position? India launched the world's largest COVID-19 immunisation drive in January 2021. To date, over 220 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the country as per the CoWIN dashboard. These were primarily of the two vaccines available then, AstraZeneca's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. Rajiv Bahl, Director General of ICMR, has said there is absolutely no need to initiate mass booster doses for COVID-19 vaccines at present, and neither is there a direction from the Central government on this. As cases rise, Dr. Bahl noted that individual doctors could recommend booster doses to patients on a case-to-case basis. He further explained that the need for mass vaccination, while not felt at present, could arise, with perhaps a mutation in the virus or its spread. 'For that, India already has the capacity to scale up production and provide for the general public. We have done this before and there is no need to panic,' he said. Since vaccines which were stocked and used in 2021 and 2022 have now fallen into disuse and expired, there are no stocks at present, a government official said. The official, however, added that the government could direct manufacturers to produce more stocks as and when necessary. Most States, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal, have no stocks or supplies of the vaccine at present either in the government or private sector. Are vaccines needed at present? Doctors across the board say that at present they see no need for a mass vaccination drive. 'By the time Omicron ran its course, almost all of our population had been exposed to the virus. Even when this antibody protection wanes, the long-term immune memory remains. This innate immunity plus the vaccine-derived immunity through good coverage of the initial two doses means that most people have strong hybrid immunity against COVID-19,' the Kerala health department official said. Previous vaccines may not be very effective against the Omicron variants but would, however, offer protection against serious forms of the disease. Though two indigenously developed nasal vaccines specifically targeting the Omicron variant from Bharat Biotech and Indian Immunologicals, as well as another vaccine for the Omicron variant, were made available in the Indian market, the uptake was low, doctors said. Kiran Madala, a Hyderabad-based doctor, part of an international group of genetic epidemiologists under the COVID Treatment Exchange Organisation, said the current World Health Organization guidelines recommend vaccines primarily for individuals above 70 years of age, those who are immunocompromised, and patients with multiple co-morbidities. Children, especially those aged two to six years, do not need vaccination unless they have underlying health issues or are immunosuppressed. Dr. Nambi in Chennai said some patients, those who have travel obligations, have requested the vaccines, but none are available at present. 'But I wish that there was an option of vaccination, not for the general population in large but for two subsets of patient groups in whom the infection could cause problems,' he said. One, those who have not received any COVID-19 vaccines or missed an infection, leaving them without immunity, while the second are those with co-morbidities and who are immuno-compromised. T. Jacob John, retired professor of clinical virology at Christian Medical College, Vellore, also said that the elderly and immunocompromised people needed to be vaccinated again, irrespective of whether they were fully vaccinated (two doses and a booster) or had been exposed to the virus earlier. State governments, however, have taken a more cautious stance: 'Whether vaccination is required or not depends on many factors,' said T. S. Selvavinayagam, T.N. Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. 'We need to study the epidemiology of the current cases before commenting on the requirement for vaccination now.' Kerala has said it was 'not advocating for or against COVID booster shots' because of the lack of epidemiological data that booster doses offered enhanced protection against emerging immune-evasive variants. What next? The Delhi High Court, earlier this week, directed the Centre to submit a thorough status report detailing its actions regarding the policy for sample collection, collection centres, and transportation of samples. The court also stressed urgency to finalise and implement Standard Operating Procedures. As the virus continues to adapt, so must we, Dr. Bardhan pointed out. Staying informed and following trusted health sources, personal protection and hygiene measures such as hand washing, avoiding crowded places when possible or masking up, refraining from going outdoors when ill and maintaining a healthy, well-balanced lifestyle could help navigate this phase and any more to come. Compiled by Zubeda Hamid, with inputs from C. Maya in Kerala, Serena Josephine M. in Chennai, Bindu Shajan Perappadan in Delhi, Afshan Yasmeen in Bengaluru, Shrabana Chatterjee in Kolkata and Siddharth Kumar Singh in Hyderabad.


The Hindu
3 hours ago
- The Hindu
Bihar had lowest sex ratio at birth in 2022, in decline for three years: CRS data
Bihar has recorded the lowest sex ratio at birth for 2022 among all States and Union Territories, reporting just 891 girls born for every 1,000 boys, according to the Civil Registration System's vital statistics report, released this week by the Office of the Registrar General of India. Bihar is also the only State that has seen its sex ratio at birth declining consistently since 2020, the year from which this data is available for the State. In 2020, the State reported a sex ratio at birth of 964, which fell to 908 in 2021, before further dipping to 891 in 2022. This comes ahead of the Bihar Assembly election, at a time when political parties have been actively targeting women voters, including with promises of cash transfers in polls in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand. In 2024, 47.6% of Bihar's 7.64 crore electors were women, though voter turnout in the State during the 2024 general election showed that 50.4% of votes polled came from women. Other States with low sex ratios at birth in 2022 were Maharashtra (906), Telangana (907), and Gujarat (908). On the other hand, Nagaland had the highest figure of 1,068, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (1,036), Ladakh (1,027), Meghalaya (972), and Kerala (971). Assam, which had reported 863 girl babies born in 2021 for every 1,000 boys, the lowest ratio for that year, showed an improvement to 933 in 2022. Delayed reports A month after the Office of the RGI released the Civil Registration System (CRS), Sample Registration System (SRS), and Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD) reports for 2021, after a four-year-delay, the government this week released the CRS and MCCD data for 2022 as well. However, the SRS report for 2022 has not yet been made public. The SRS is the largest demographic survey in the country, meant to provide annual estimates on fertility and mortality indicators, including birth and death rates. The CRS and MCCD reports provide data on registered births and deaths, and the causes of medically certified registered deaths respectively. Drop in deaths in 2022 The CRS report showed that there were 86.5 lakh registered deaths in 2022, a stark drop from the 102.2 lakh registered deaths in 2021, the year in which the COVID-19 pandemic took its highest toll in the country. The Hindu has previously reported on how the 2021 data, recording 'excess deaths' in comparison to the norm, showed that the initial government reporting of COVID-19 deaths for the year was an underestimate. The CRS 2022 data also showed a hike in registered births, rising to 254.4 lakh registered births, in comparison to 242 lakh the previous year. Birth, death registration trends State-level birth registration statistics in the 2022 report show that, since 2013, States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Uttarakhand have seen a general trend of registered births rising, despite occasional dips. On the other hand, States and UTs like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Delhi saw a general decline in registered births, despite fluctuations. Of the total registered births in 2022, 52.4% were boys while 47.6% were girls. While about 43% of the births were registered in rural areas, 56.5% were registered in urban areas. The report added that the number of registered stillbirths in 2022 fell to 1.15 lakh from 1.24 lakh the previous year. Of the total registered deaths in 2022, the shares of men and women were 60.4% and 39.6% respectively. The report showed that 59.5% of the registered deaths were in rural India while 40.5% were in urban areas.