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China's Covid-19 surge is infecting 37 million people a day, warns report

The estimates, including 37 million people who were infected on Tuesday alone, were revealed by Sun Yang, a deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in a health briefing on Wednesday, the FT report said.

During the closed-door briefing, Sun said that the rate of Covid`s spread in China was still rising and estimated that more than half of the population in Beijing and Sichuan were already infected.

On Sunday, China`s National Health Commission, which used to issue the country`s COVID-19 case figures on a daily basis, stopped publishing the update, The Global Times reported.

The New Year is expected to bring faster and easier journeys for the people of West Bengal as Eastern India's first Vande Bharat Express reached Kolkata on Sunday. 

The train, to be run from Howrah to New Jalpaiguri, is likely to be flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 30. The PM is to visit Kolkata for a meeting of the National Ganga Council that day. 

PM Modi is also likely to inaugurate the Joka-Taratala stretch of the Joka-BBD Bagh metro corridor virtually from Howrah station.  

BJP leader and West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Friday urged the BJP supporters to perform ‘Tulsi Pujan’ on December 25 before celebrating Christmas and also to observe Ramkrishna Paramhans ‘Kalpataru Diwas’ on January 1.

Addressing a rally at Ranaghat, the house of the Mauas, Mr Adhikari also requested people to listen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ after performing ‘Tulsi Pujan’.

“December 25 is also the birth anniversary of former prime minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and we should perform Tulsi Pujan and then listen to Mann Ki Baat and celebrate Vajpayee’s birthday on December 25,” said Mr Adhikari.

In a tragic accident, sixteen soldiers of Indian Army lost their lives when the vehicle they were travelling in fell into a gorge while negotiating a sharp turn at Zema in North Sikkim. The deceased include three Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs). Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh among other leaders have expressed condolences over the tragic incident.

The wreath laying on the mortal remains of the army jawans who died in the accident will be held at Bagdogra airport in West Bengal on Saturday, the Army said.

The BF7 variant of the coronavirus has triggered panic in China. The country has been logging lakhs of Covid cases every day. The more worrying facet of the surge is that it has also scaled up daily hospitalisations, overwhelming the health sector of the second largest economy in the world. The Indian government has taken note of what's happening in China and has advised states against complacency. There is a fear among the masses as to the new variant. Does it have the potential to bring in another coronavirus wave to Indian shores? Is it deadly? Will the coronavirus situation in India be as bad as China? An IIT professor has given his two cents on the topic.