Sydney [Australia], July 12 (ANI/Xinhua): A large cruise ship, destined to arrive in Australia's most populous state of New South Wales (NSW), has been struck by a COVID-19 outbreak, leaving more than 2,000 guests affected on the ship.

Hong Kong, July 3 (ANI): Hong Kong on Sunday said that it will distribute around 290,000 sets of COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) kits as part of a follow-up on the recent detection of the COVID-19 virus in sewage samples.

Hong Kong, May 16 (ANI) Hong Kong on Sunday announced that the COVID-19 virus continues to be detected in sewage samples from some areas in the city, indicating that there may be hidden cases in premises in these areas.

New Delhi Nov 30 PTI The Centre on Tuesday extended the nation-wide COVID-19 containment measures till December 31 in view of the emergence of a highly mutant COVID-19 variant Omicron in some countries and asked the states to be vigilantIn a communication Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla also asked states and UTs to strictly adhere to the November 25 advisory issued by the Union Health Ministry recommending rigorous screening and testing of all international arrivalsBhalla also said that the contacts of the international travellers must be closely tracked and tested as per the health ministry guidelines and the samples of travellers turning positive sent to the designated Genome Sequencing Laboratories promptly as per the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium INSACOG Guidance DocumentHe said the state surveillance officers must also establish close coordination with their designated or tagged genome sequencing laboratories for expediting results of genomic analysis and the States and UTs should immediately undertake necessary public health measures in case of the presence of variants of concernAccordingly the home secretary directed that the existing Prompt and Effective Containment Measures for COVID-19 must be continued till December 31Also on Tuesday Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan held a review meeting with states and UTs and advised them to ramp up testing for early identification and management of casesWhile underlining that the new variant doesnt escape RT-PCR and RAT tests Bhushan asked states and UTs to ensure adequate infrastructure and supervised home isolation according to a health ministryIndia logged 6990 new coronavirus infections the lowest in 551 days taking the countrys total tally of COVID-19 cases to 34587822 while the active cases have declined to 100543 the lowest in 546 days according to the Union health ministry data updated on TuesdayThe death toll climbed to 468980 with 190 fresh fatalities according to the data PTI ACB PYK PYK

New Delhi [India], November 30 (ANI): Union Health Secretary, Rajesh Bhushan chaired a high-level meeting on Tuesday with officials from States and Union Territories to review COVID-19 public health response measures and preparedness amid reports of Omicron variant of COVID-19 in various countries.

Dharwad (Karnataka) [India], November 27 (ANI): As many as 116 medical college students were tested COVID-19 positive in Karnataka's Dharwad on Friday, taking the tally of confirmed cases in the campus to 182.