Covid Cases News LIVE Updates: Hetero’s Paxlovid generic -19

West Bengal reported eight new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the Health Department said.

The state’s COVID-19 tally rose to 21,18,597 with the detection of the new cases, while the toll remained at 21,532, it said.

Six people recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the total recoveries to 20,97,012, it added.

There are 53 active cases in the state at present, and only eight of these patients are undergoing treatment in hospital.

The new cases were detected after testing 4,398 samples.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday left in place for now a pandemic-era policy allowing U.S. officials to rapidly expel migrants caught at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a 5-4 vote, the court granted a request by Republican state attorneys general to put on hold a judge’s decision invalidating the emergency public health order known as Title 42.

The 19 states argue lifting the policy could lead to an increase in already-record border crossings and strain resources of the states where migrants end up. The court said it would hear arguments on whether the states could intervene to defend Title 42 in its February session.

A ruling is expected by the end of June.

India’s Hetero said on Tuesday that its generic version of Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment for COVID-19 developed by Pfizer Inc, was added to the World Health Organization’s prequalification list, which serves as a benchmark for procurement of medicines by developing countries.

Hetero said it had entered into a licensing agreement with the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to manufacture and sell the generic version of the drug in low- and middle-income countries.

The treatment bundles two nirmatrelvir pills and one ritonavir pill and will be manufactured at Hetero’s plants in India, where the drug has emergency use authorization from the country’s drugs controller general.

Oil prices were steady after hitting a three-week high on Tuesday as restarts at some U.S. energy plants shut by winter storms offset gains stemming from hopes of a demand recovery as China eases its COVID-19 restrictions.

Brent crude was up 41 cents, or 0.5%, at $84.33 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled 3 cents lower at $79.53 per barrel.

Both benchmarks hit their highest level since Dec. 5 earlier in the session. UK and U.S. markets were closed on Monday for the Christmas holiday.

Air India Express on Tuesday issued guidelines for the maintenance of Covid-appropriate behaviour by travellers travelling from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to India.

The recommendation advises that all visitors should preferably be completely immunized as per the approved primary schedule of vaccination against Covid-19 in their country. Other precautions to take when travelling include the use of masks and physical distancing.

“All guests should preferably be fully vaccinated as per the approved primary schedule of vaccination against COVID-19 in their country. All guests should preferably use masks and follow physical distancing on flights/travel and at all points of entry,” the official Twitter handle of Air India Express tweeted.