New Rules For Testing Amid Covid Surge, Other Top Stories

Contacts of COVID-19 patients, unless identified as high-risk, don't need to be tested, the government's top medical body said in a new advisory; Booster doses are being administered across Uttar Pradesh but with just a month to go before the crucial state election, UP's big headache is increasing overall vaccination; Maharashtra is once again a Covid hotspot but the demand for oxygen is 80 per cent less when compared to the previous wave of Covid even though it has risen by 80 metric tonnes in the last two weeks; 21 per cent of the Covid beds in Mumbai's government-private hospitals are currently full; and other top stories.