<span style="color: #222222;">Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar today warned to impose strict restrictions in the state if the Covid-19 cases continue to rise. He informed that more than 10 ministers and 20 MLA's in Maharashtra have tested positive and the government had to cut short the assembly session recently. He said that everybody will have to follow the norms to avoid the restrictions. While justifying the state government's decision to deny permission to bullock cart race in Pune, he said that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had directed the state chief secretary to issue orders to all collectors to avoid public gatherings to stop the spread of the virus. </span><br />''<br />''Meanwhile, Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary of Health Pradeep Vyas has also expressed fear of a sudden steep rise in Covid-19 cases this month considering the current trend of rising Covid-19 cases. Maharashtra has more than 24 thousand 509 active cases and Mumbai is on the verge of becoming Corona hot spot with more than 50 percent share of 16 thousand 441 active cases. There were  7 thousand 111 active cases in the state on December 21 and the state has registered more than 3 fold rise in the cases within last 10 days.<br />''<br />''Kerala is all set with the preparations for the COVID vaccination of children between 15 and 18 years in the state, which will begin from Monday. State Health Minister Veena George informed that an Action Plan has been formulated for the same. The vaccination registration for 15 to 18-year-olds has already begun. The vaccine registration can be done online through the CoWIN portal and also through spot registration.<br />''<br />''Meanwhile, Kerala confirmed 2,435 new COVID-19 positive cases today. Twenty-two deaths were also confirmed due to COVID today, taking the total death toll to 48,035. In all, 2,704  recoveries were also reported today. At present, 18,904 is the active caseload in the state.<br />''<br />''The night curfew imposed in Kerala will be in place till the 2nd of January in the view of the rising Omicron cases. People have been directed to carry a self-certified affidavit to venture out at night for any emergencies.<br />''<br />''Covid-19 cases are continuously rising in Delhi amid an increase in the number of cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus. A total of one thousand 796 fresh Covid cases were reported in the city yesterday.<br />''<br />''As per the health bulletin of Delhi, the Covid positivity rate has crossed the two per cent mark and currently stands at 2.44 per cent. Yesterday, over 467 Covid patients recovered and were discharged. No fatality has been reported in the last 24 hours. There are over four thousand active cases in Delhi and 226 patients are hospitalized. On the vaccination front, over two crore 62 lakh doses of Covid vaccines have been administered to the beneficiaries in the national capital so far.<br />''<br />''In Telangana, the COVID 19 positive infections being reported daily is rising continuously with health authorities reporting 311 positive infections on a single day. 198 cases out of this, have been reported from the GHMC area. Two deaths reported due to Covid-19 and other comorbidities, taking the total number of deaths to 4,027 in the state. In other districts, 32 Covid cases have been reported from Medchal-Malkajgiri district and 28 infections were reported from Rangareddy district during the past 24 hours.<br />''<br />''Meanwhile, the Omicron cases 67 Omicron cases have been reported so far in Telangana out of which 27 recovered.<br />''<br />''In Uttarakhand, 118 COVID -19 positive cases were reported during the last 24 hours. According to Health Bulletin released this evening, one person died due to the Corona pandemic. Thirty-four patients recovered during the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, four Omicron variants affected people detected in Dehradun. Director-General of Health Department said in a press release that all the Omicron-affected were from Dehradun.    <br />''<br />''In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, 169 fresh cases of Novel Coronavirus including 68 from Jammu and 101 from Kashmir Division were reported today taking the total number of positive cases to 3,41,459. So far, a total of 4,530 persons have lost their lives due to the pandemic in J&K. Two deaths took place in the Kashmir valley during the last 24 hours. A total of 48 positive cases were reported from Srinagar district followed by 34 from Jammu district while 15 cases were reported from Baramulla district. Meanwhile, 107 COVID patients recovered and were discharged from various hospitals of Jammu and Kashmir.<br />''<br />''In Manipur, 19 people tested positive for COVID-19 during the last twenty-four hours. These cases were detected among the 909 samples tested for the virus and the positivity rate is 2.1 per cent. No COVID-19 related death case has been reported in the last twenty-four hours. The death toll remained at 2,002 in the state.<br />''<br />''Meanwhile, 11 COVID-19 patients were discharged taking the total number of recovered cases to 1,23,598. The recovery rate is 98.24 per cent. The total number of infected people so far is 1,25,807. The total number of active cases remained at 207.<br />''<br />''<br />''<span style="color: #222222;">The total number of doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered till yesterday in Manipur is 23,16,098 including 9,91,075 second doses.</span><br />