According to the Indian Media, Just ahead of the Budget session of Parliament, which usually begins in the end of January, nearly 400 staffers working with Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats and allied services have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last few days, triggering a move to impose curbs on employees’ attendance. According to sources, 65 staffers of Rajya Sabha Secretariat, 200 of Lok Sabha Secretariat and 133 of allied services have tested positive for Covid-19 between January 4-8 during regular tests.

India reported over 1.5 lakh daily infections for the second consecutive day, taking the active caseload to 5,90,611. According to the Union Ministry of Health, the country recorded 1,59,632 fresh Covid-19 cases and 327 deaths in the last 24 hours ending Sunday, 9 am. The daily positivity rate stood at 10.21 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Omicron tally in India has reached 3,623, with Maharashtra (1,009) continuing to top the count.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said that there are no plans to impose lockdown in the national capital yet, stating that the Delhi government wants to “impose as few restrictions as possible so that people’s livelihoods are not impacted.” Delhi is expected to record over 22,000 daily cases Sunday. On Saturday, it had breached the 20,000-mark, along with Mumbai, which reported 20,318 new cases.

In other news, 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. He also stated that the peak of the ongoing third wave in the country could go as high as 8 lakh cases in a day — almost twice the peak of the second wave. “The third wave (for the country) is expected to peak somewhere in the beginning of next month or even slightly earlier…By middle of March, the third wave of the pandemic should be more or less over in India,” Agrawal said.