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A landmark Israeli trial is expected to show that four shots of vaccine didn't stop infection by the Omicron variant, according to a study official.

While the extra dose — of either Pfizer of Moderna vaccine — seemed to have some effect, rates of infection in the study were not substantially different to those who had three doses of Pfizer, the study official said.

Gili Regev-Yochay, a lead investigator on the study, told reporters that "the vaccine is excellent against the Alpha and Delta," but the study found that "for Omicron, it's not good enough," The Times of Israel reported Monday evening.

Hours after a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Monday expressed sharp displeasure over lawyers using mobile phones for virtual court hearings, the Supreme Court of India notified ‘best practices for virtual court proceedings’. They ask all advocates to avoid joining hearings through their mobile phones.

All Advocates and party in persons have been requested to join the Cisco Webex application for joining the court hearings through Desktops or Laptops with a stable internet connectivity, preferably wired, to avoid any disruption in the court proceedings and inconvenience to the judges.

The Advocates and party in person have further been asked to join through a single device, preferably using a headset enabled microphone and audio system.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday (January 18, 2022) will announce AAP's chief ministerial candidate for the Punjab Assembly polls.

"The name of the party's chief ministerial candidate for Punjab Assembly elections will be announced tomorrow at 12 noon," Kejriwal had told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Delhi on Monday.

The AAP, notably, has received around 22 lakh responses under its campaign to elect its CM face for the Assembly polls.

Indian higher education regulator has cautioned colleges and universities not to get into a franchise model with edtech players to offer degrees and diplomas. And any violation will invite action against institutions and edtech players concerned, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has written to higher educational institutions. UGC has underlined that a franchise model of offering online degrees and diplomas is not recognised by the regulations.

“It has come to the notice of UGC recently that some EdTech companies are giving advertisements in newspaper/ social media / television etc. that they are offering degree and diploma programmes in ODL/Online modes in association with some universities/institutions recognized/entitled by the UGC,” as per a circular issued by the education regulator.

The Covid vaccination programme is set to start for the 12-14 age group from February-end, Dr N K Arora, chairman of the Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation told media on Sunday.

Adolescent vaccination is making impressive strides across the country. A total of 3.31 crore children in the age bracket of 15 to 17 years have already received their first dose, accounting for almost 45% coverage, just 13 days into the drive on January 3 this year.

"We aim to cover all the 7.4 crore adolescents in the 15-17 age bracket with the first dose by January-end so that we can start vaccinating them with the second dose from early February and finish the second dose by February-end. We want to start vaccinating children between 12 and 14 years from February-end or early March," Dr Arora said.