India recorded its first death caused by Omicron in a fully vaccinated person in Rajasthan on the last day of 2021. The 73-year-old man, with co-morbidities, had tested positive on December 15. Preliminary evidence from South Africa and the U.K. suggests that unlike the Delta variant, a majority of people with Omicron, particularly in the fully vaccinated, exhibit only mild disease; hospitalisation is relatively less among the vaccinated. A huge percentage of the population in India was infected when the Delta variant raged last year. Studies from other countries have shown that such people might enjoy the same level or even better protection from severe disease than fully vaccinated people. Hybrid immunity achieved through full vaccination in people who have been previously infected offers the highest level of protection against severe disease, as several studies outside India show. With vaccination picking up speed after the second wave peaked in India, a significant
Novak Djokovic being denied entry into Australia in the early hours of Thursday after his visa was cancelled following a 10-hour stand-off with the Australian Border Force (ABF) at Melbourne airport is one of sport’s most sordid tales. The World No.1 and a three-time defending Australian Open champion, also a vaccine sceptic, had secured a medical exemption from the Victorian State government and Tennis Australia — the sport’s national governing body — to circumvent a mandatory vaccination requirement to play at the season’s opening Major. But in a stunning turnaround, the Serb was stopped at the border control after ABF, which operates under the Australian government, deemed the evidence supporting his medical exemption as insufficient, sparking a diplomatic row. Faced with the prospect of deportation, Djokovic has now mounted a legal challenge, the fate of which will be known by Monday. Shorn of all the drama, this month could have been momentous for the 20-time Major winner as he is
