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In the sharpest single-day spike, the Omicron tally in the coastal State jumped to 61 on Wednesday with 24 more, including foreign returnees and community transmission cases, testing positive for the new variant of coronavirus, said State’s health authorities.

With the reporting of new cases, the cumulative tally has gone up from 37 to 61. The detection of as many as 19 locally transmitted variants has raised alarm in the State while five of the new infectees were foreign returnees.

Of the 218 samples sent to the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar for genome sequencing, 24 were found to be positive cases.

Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Marshal V N Chaudhari is learnt to have presented a detailed report to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the findings of the probe into the 8 December chopper crash in which Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat and 13 others were killed.

The tri-service court of inquiry was headed by Air Marshal Manvendra Singh and included personnel from the IAF, Army and the Navy.

The inquiry team is understood to have suggested that pilots were following a railway line while flying towards the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington when a thick cloud cover emerged. The pilot may have got disoriented due to low visibility, leading to a collision and the subsequent crash. A technical fault in the helicopter or sabotage has been ruled out.

The Congress has given its approval to the ‘one family, one ticket’ rule for the upcoming Punjab assembly elections. This can potentially throw several senior party leaders or their family members out of the poll fray.

Prominent among those likely to be affected are chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s younger brother Dr Manohar Singh, who had resigned as a senior medical officer and staked claim for the Bassi Pathana seat.

The nod to the rule was given at a screening committee meeting chaired by Congress general secretary Ajay Maken.

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday (January 5) closed all colleges and universities till February 15. 

As per the agency, the exams will be conducted online in colleges and universities. Maharashtra Higher & Technical Education Minister Uday Samant said, "Amid rising COVID cases, Maharashtra govt to discontinue physical classes in colleges, universities till February 15. All exams in the said institutions to be conducted online till February 15." 

Earlier on Wednesday, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope had ruled out 100 per cent lockdown in the state, adding that restrictions have to be imposed wherever there is crowding. Talking to reporters after a meeting with the state's COVID-19 Task Force and health officials, Tope said, "The Task Force has used the term augmented restrictions, which means if the cases rise like this...We don't have to use the term lockdown. Hundred per cent lockdown is not certainly required as of today."

Amid surging Covid-19 cases, states have resorted to imposing weekend curfews and night curfews in an attempt to stem the spread of the coronavirus infection.

Earlier in the day, Delhi announced a weekend curfew starting 10 pm on January 7 (Friday) till 5 am on January 10 (Monday), and Bihar imposed a statewide night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am with effect from January 6 till January 21.

The Delhi government has announced a weekend curfew to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infections, which have been rising due to the spread of the Omicron variant.  The decision was taken after a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) that reviewed the situation in the national capital in the wake of Omicron's spread. Besides night curfew, other measures like limiting the office staff and restricting gatherings of people are already in place.