Health
Omicron Booster Alert: Scammers finding new way to make money by helping people get booster shot | Here’s all you need to know
Scammers posing as government health experts are contacting gullible people to book their booster shots to fight the Omicron variant. Know about the booster shot scam here.

With the surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant, the government has decided to administer booster shots or a third vaccine to the citizens in order to develop immunity in their bodies to fight the highly transmissible variant. Currently, the booster shot is being administered to senior citizens and frontline workers.
The booster shot can be booked online on the CoWIN platform. But people need to be careful while booking the slot because you may lose money. Scammers are finding a new way to make money by helping people get a booster shot.
Here’s all you need to know about the booster scam!
Scammers posing as government health experts are contacting gullible people to book their booster shots. Fraudsters primarily target senior citizens and other eligible individuals. Surprisingly, the scammers are well-prepared to mislead people. A person claiming from the health department will contact an elderly person and ask for personal information such as vaccine dose specifics for the first and second shots, as well as address, phone number, and other information.
Then after a few days, the person will receive a call from someone purporting to be from the health department, requesting assistance in scheduling a booster shot. Personal data are confirmed to make the call look authentic, and the scam caller convinces the victim that a message with an OTP would be sent to their registered phone number. After that, he or she will request the OTP to confirm the booster shot appointment.
In other circumstances, the caller may ask the victim to download a specific app to their phone, usually a remote desktop tool like AnyDesk or TeamViewer, to assist them with the booking process.
The issue now is that OTP is typically created for the UPI request money feature, or it is also seen that the fraudster already has the victim’s bank account details in their record. They may ask for the bank details and OTP to make payment and book the slot online if they don’t have the bank data. The OTP is simply requested to transfer funds from the victim’s bank accounts via UPI or internet banking.
Scammers are primarily targeting those in rural areas or the elderly, who may not be familiar with UPI, remote desktop apps, or online banking. To obtain the OTP for bank transfer, a convincing story is presented.
How to stay safe from such scams?
The first thing to keep in mind is that government employees will never call you to schedule a vaccine appointment. In fact, there isn’t a way to register via phone. The CoWIN platform is the only way to schedule a Covid vaccine appointment. You can use the Aarogya Setu app or the CoWIN desktop website. You can also register and receive a vaccine by going directly to any vaccine centre.
No government official will ever ask for an OTP in order to schedule a vaccine appointment. Moreover, OTPs are designed to be kept private and should not be shared with anybody.
Health
India reports 5,676 fresh Covid-19 cases, 21 fatalities, check statewise list
The active cases in the country comprise 0.08 percent of the total infections.

India reported 5,676 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the active cases to 37,093. Covid-19 cases have witnessed a 79 percent rise in India in the past week.
According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Affairs, the country also logged 21 new fatalities, taking the death toll to 5,31,000 since the pandemic hit. The fatality rate has been recorded at 98.73 percent.
While three deaths each were reported from Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan, two were recorded in Karnataka and one each in Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu besides six reconciled by Kerala.
As per the updated data, the active cases in the country comprise 0.08 percent of the total infections and the national Covid-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.73 percent.
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Check statewise list of active cases!
S. No. | Name of State/UT | Active Cases |
1 | Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 7 |
2 | Andhra Pradesh | 148 |
3 | Arunachal Pradesh | 1 |
4 | Assam | 2 |
5 | Bihar | 175 |
6 | Chandigarh | 170 |
7 | Chhattisgarh | 511 |
8 | Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu | 1 |
9 | Delhi | 2338 |
10 | Goa | 780 |
11 | Gujarat | 1938 |
12 | Haryana | 1928 |
13 | Himachal Pradesh | 1762 |
14 | Jammu and Kashmir | 426 |
15 | Jharkhand | 75 |
16 | Karnataka | 1673 |
17 | Kerala | 13745 |
18 | Ladakh | 42 |
19 | Lakshadweep | 0 |
20 | Madhya Pradesh | 177 |
21 | Maharashtra | 4667 |
22 | Manipur | 12 |
23 | Meghalaya | 3 |
24 | Mizoram | 1 |
25 | Nagaland | 2 |
26 | Odisha | 731 |
27 | Puducherry | 273 |
28 | Punjab | 666 |
29 | Rajasthan | 804 |
30 | Sikkim | 43 |
31 | Tamil Nadu | 2099 |
32 | Telangana | 175 |
33 | Tripura | 0 |
34 | Uttarakhand | 147 |
35 | Uttar Pradesh | 1282 |
36 | West Bengal | 295 |
In view of the rising cases, mock drills to take stock of hospital preparedness were held in several public and private facilities across the country on Monday. The states/Union territories were also requested to expeditiously increase the rate of testing and increase the share of RT-PCR in tests.
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Health
India logs over 6,000 fresh Covid-19 cases, health minister to chair high-level meeting today
A few days ago, Mandaviya said that ICU beds, oxygen supply, and other critical care arrangements are in place, adding that there’s a weekly review of preparedness.

There seems to be no decline in Covid-19 cases in India. The country is once again seeing a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases. India on Saturday reported 6,050 new coronavirus cases which are 13 percent higher than yesterday which recorded 5,335 cases.
Daily cases have crossed the 6,000 mark for the first time since September 16 last year. With the addition of today’s cases, the number of active Covid-19 cases in the country stands at 28,303.
According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the daily positivity rate in the country stands at 3.39 percent while the weekly positivity rate is recorded at 3.02 percent.
India also logged 14 fatalities in the last 24 hours. Three were reported from Maharashtra, two each from Karnataka and Rajasthan, one each from Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, and one death was reconciled by Kerala.
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As per the Health Ministry data, the active cases now comprise 0.06 percent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.75 percent.
With an uptick in Covid-19 cases, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya will chair a high-level meeting with the health ministers of all states and Union Territories today.
Minister of State for Health and Family Affairs Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar said that the Centre has regularly issued guidelines to the States and UTs on Covid19. PM Modi has held a review with all states on this. Today, Health Minister Dr Mandaviya will hold a review meeting with health ministers of States and UTs.
The government has earlier said that it is prepared to deal with a spike in infections. A few days ago, Mandaviya said that ICU beds, oxygen supply, and other critical care arrangements are in place, adding that there’s a weekly review of preparedness.
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Health
India records whopping 5,335 cases in past 24 hours, 6 more fatalities
The number of active Covid cases in India mounted to 25,587 as the country witnessed a surge in coronavirus infections, registering 5,335 fresh cases of the deadly virus in the past 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active Covid cases in India mounted to 25,587 as the country witnessed a surge in coronavirus infections, registering 5,335 fresh cases of the deadly virus in the past 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.
On Wednesday, India has registered 4,435 new Covid-19 cases, the highest single-day jump since September 2022.
As per the data at 8 am today on the Union Heath Ministry’s website, six more fatalities due to the deadly viral infection were reported during the past 24 hours taking the overall death toll since the pandemic hit to 5,30,929 while the active cases jumped by 2,496 and the current caseload in the country stands at 25,587
According to the health ministry’s data, the active cases comprise 0.06 per cent of the total infections since the viral outbreak while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.75 per cent with 2,826 people recovering from the contagious virus during the past 24 hours
The data stated that at 8,229 Kerala, which registered 1,404 new cases, has the most number of active cases, Maharashtra has 3,874 while Delhi has 1,795 coronavirus cases.
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Himachal Pradesh has reported 212 new cases while 130 fresh infections were registered in Tamil Nadu.
The data also revealed that a total of 1.6 lakh Covid-19 tests were conducted during the past 24 hours.
Scientists have attributed the recent uptick in Covid-19 cases to the Omicron variant XBB.1.16 of the coronavirus diseases which is being closely monitored by the World Health Organization
On March 22, the WHO had added the XBB.1.16 to its list of variants under monitoring. The global body has said that the XBB.1.16 variant has a similar to its predecessor XBB.1.5, but contains additional changes in the spike protein, adding that lab studies have revealed that XBB.1.16 show signs of increased infectivity as well as potentially increased pathogenicity.
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