KOCHI l Wednesday l January 19, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION Data show Omicron spread will end pandemic: expert If you were wondering how long will the coronavirus pandemic go on, you won’t have to wait much longer, says a UK virologist ‘In 2022, life can be like it was before covid’ Year 2022 will mark the end of the pandemic, according to Prof Julian Hiscox, chairman in infection and global health at the University of Liverpool. With Omicron, there will ``be ‘natural immunity’ on top of vaccination, which will lead to a scenario of endemicity, he said. Endemicity means though the virus spread will continue, its severity will come down to easily manageable levels ■ 55 lakh Too early to call it, says fauci ■ However, not all experts are as optimistic as Hiscox. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the US president, says it’s too early to say if Omicron will mark the end of the pandemic “It is an open question as to whether or not Omicron is going to be the live virus vaccination everyone is hoping for,” he said | P7 Covid deaths reported worldwide so far, according to w.h.o. data CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI 35 clusters in capital, CPM meet super spreader Min SIvankutty among 100 attendees who tested +ve for Covid; clusters identified in schools, offices & police stations feeling the heat 48% the test positivity rate in Thiruvananthapuram district 35% was the TPR in Kerala on Tuesday statewide Jan 17 Jan 18 Fresh cases 22,946 28,481 Recoveries 5,280 7,303 Deaths 18 39 28,481 fresh cases reported in state on Tuesday Death toll crosses 51,000mark U n n i k r i s h n a n S @ T’Puram CPM’s three-day district conference that concluded at Parassala on Sunday turned out to be a super spreader as at least 100 delegates who had attended the event tested positive for Covid. Among the infected are Minister V Sivankutty, MLAs I B Satheesh, G Stephan and Kadakampally Surendran. It is learnt that a former minister, an area secretary and a few local committee secretaries are also infected. Among the infected are red volunteers and SFI workers who had offered service at the venue. The cases are likely to shoot up in the next couple of days as more people are suspected to have symptoms. The CPM meet is one of the 35 clusters identified in the capital district in the last four days and the sudden surge in cases has been attributed to these clusters. Covid clusters were identified in schools, colleges, offices and police stations. It may be recalled that Parassala police have already registered a case against conference organisers for conducting a ‘Mega Thiruvathira performance’ with the participation of over 500 women. Despite the setback in Thiruvananthapuram, the party is going ahead with remaining district conferences. Plans are afoot to conduct the conferences in Thrissur, Kasaragod and Alappuzha in the coming days. Opposition leader V D Satheesan said with decision to go ahead with conferences, the CPM has proved who the real merchants of death are. “We have postponed even our protest programmes considering the gravity of the situa● More on P2 tion,” he said.  10 for marriage, 3,000 for darshan at Guruvayur temple Marriages at the Guruvayur Sree Krishna temple will be a low-key affair with only 10 people, including the bride and groom, in attendance. Also, only 3,000 devotees instead of the earlier 10,000 would be allowed entry inside the temple. The Guruvayur Devaswom officials on Tuesday decided to impose the restrictions in view of the rise in Covid cases, including those of the Omicron variant. For those who booked the weddings, two photographers will also be allowed besides the 10 attendees. P2 Muslim groups frown on SFI, Blast on Navy ship kills three personnel say it promotes sexual anarchy Express News Service @ New Delhi Congress steps up attack on Kodiyeri M P P r a s h a n t h @ Kozhikode AI chief Vikram Dev Dutt new CMD of Air India The bureacrat, a 1993-batch IAS officer of AGMUT cadre, is at present principal secretary (Tourism) in the Delhi government. The airline is slated to be handed over to the Tata Sons. The government is looking to hand over Air India to the Tata group by January end | P10 OPENING a new front in its offensive against CPM, the IUML has targetted the Left party’s student wing SFI for “spreading sexual anarchy and the ideology of liberalism” on the campuses, and got spontaneous suppor t from other Muslim organisations, including those owing alle giance to Kanthapuram Abu Becker Mussaliyar. The SFI unit at the LBS College of Engineering, Kasaragod, had brought out posters ostensibly promoting same-sex love a few weeks ago. Another poster showed a male student holding the hand of a Muslim girl with the caption “Let us chain the hands of pseudo morality .” “Instead of talking politics, Left organisations are engaged in propagating love and free sex on capmuses. The Communist agenda is to attract youth to the party said IUML high-powered ,” committee member Panakkad Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal. He was inaugurating the Muslim Yough League state executive camp at Munnar in Idukki district on Monday . Earlier this month, the League had used a marriage in Kannur between a Muslim girl and a Hindu boy from a Communist family as a propaganda material to campaign against the threat faced by the Muslim community ‘from atheists and irreligious groups’.  ● More on P4 Congress on Tuesday stepped up its attack on Kodiyeri Balakrishnan for his remark that leaders belonging to minorities were being sidelined in the grand-old party, even as the CPM state secretary remained unfazed by the criticism and continued to question the Congress over the issue. P4 In an unfortunate incident on Monday at Naval Dockyard Mumbai, three naval personnel succumbed to injuries caused by an explosion in an internal compartment onboard INS Ranvir Navy An explosion onboard a Navy ship at the Mumbai port killed three personnel and left over 10 others injured. The injured personnel are being treated in local hospitals. The blast happened in an internal compartment of INS Ranvir. “In an unfortunate incident on Monday at Naval Dockyard Mumbai, three naval personnel succumbed to injuries caused by an explosion in an internal compartment onboard INS Ran- vir,” the Navy said in a statement. However, there was no major material damage, the statement added. The ship’s crew brought the situation under control. INS Ranvir was on cross coast operational deployment from the Eastern Naval Command from November 2021 and was due to return to its base port shortly A Board of Inquiry has . been ordered to investigate the cause. A Rajput Class Destroyer, INS Ranvir was built in Russia and inducted in the Navy in 1986. Navy chief Admiral R Harikumar had commanded the ship earlier in his career. Serious accidents onboard Navy ships have reported in the past. For example, in 2014, a fire in the third compartment of INS Sindhuratna had killed two officers. ED carries out raid on Channi nephew house Express News Service @ Chandigarh / New Delhi THE Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday conducted raids at multiple places in Punjab, including the residence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh alias Honey, in connection with an illegal sand mining case in the poll-bound border state. The searches covered a dozen locations including Chandigarh, Mohali, Ludhiana and Pathankot. ED sleuths recovered cash worth `6 crore, including `4 crore from premises linked to Channi’s nephew, and some property documents during the searches, sources said, adding that the central agency will take action under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). EXPRESS READ 24 Injured as ‘Illegal’ building collapses Kozhikode: Twenty-Four labourers, including a woman, were injured after a multi-storey building under construction collapsed on Markaz Knowledge City campus at Kaithapoyil in Kodenchery grama panchayat near Thamarassery on Tuesday. P5 16 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express Stay relaxed and tension free Diversifying your investments across asset classes helps to mitigate the impact of market fluctuations. In a world of uncertainties, asset allocation is critical. Thankfully, various categories of hybrid schemes - investing in a combination of asset classes, provide a convenient route to asset allocation and keep tension away! 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