Few weeks ahead of schedule for the Budget Session of the Parliament, more than 400 Parliament staff members tested positive for COVID-19, leaving a shadow on the prospects of the session. Official sources confirmed that a total of 402 staff members out of the 1,409 staff of Parliament tested positive for the virus from January 4 to 8. The samples of all tested staff members were sent for genome sequencing to confirm the variant of the infection.
The positive tested staff members include 200 from Lok Sabha, 68 from Rajya Sabha and others are allied departments. But those tested outside Parliament were not included in this list. Following the mass testing, the staff have now been advised to follow all COVID related precautions with utmost care. The government has once again tightened all safety guidelines in and around the building.
A recent order by the DDMA directed all government offices to run under 50 per cent of their full staff capacity with the other half working from home. The Central government had earlier exempted its staff from biometric (daily punching) for attendance, in view of the rising cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
The Supreme Court is also facing a severe challenge after 4 out of a total number of 36 judges were tested positive and all the 150 staff members were sent for quarantaine. On January 7, Chief Justice NV Ramana stopped the court-hall hearing and used online procedures.
For the third consecutive day, the country recorded more than one lakh positive cases. These cases are around 1.5 in the last two days.
India saw a single-day spike of 1,59,632 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally to 3.55 crore, including 3,623 cases of Omicron variant across 27 states and union territories. India’s active caseload currently stands at 5,90,611. The active cases comprise 1.66 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has come down to 96.98 per cent.
As cases continue to surge across the country, several states have imposed restrictions on movement during the weekend. States like Delhi and Karnataka are observing a weekend curfew, while Tamil Nadu has imposed a complete lockdown on Sundays. On Saturday, Maharashtra imposed a night curfew in the state.
An IIT-Kanpur professor and mathematician, Manindra Agrawal, has predicted that in major cities like Delhi and Mumbai, the sharp rise in Covid cases could be arrested very soon, perhaps by the middle of this month.
Announcing that he tested positive for Covid-19 while campaigning for the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, BJP leader Varun Gandhi on Sunday urged the Election Commission to extend the precautionary booster dose to candidates and political workers.
“After being in Pilibhit for 3 days, I have tested positive for Covid with fairly strong symptoms,” the BJP MP tweeted on Sunday, adding that the election campaign was taking place right in the middle of the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. “The Election Commission should extend precautionary doses to candidates and political workers as well,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar and MoS for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai announced that they had tested positive earlier this week. Pawar and Rai stated that they are isolating and requested those in contact with them to get themselves tested as well.
As many as 15 were tested positive in Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemanth Soren’s house, including his wife and two children.