Here's the latest on the pandemic from around the world.
Europe
Britain
Britain reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in almost a year on Tuesday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government considers relaxing measures introduced to reduce the spread of Omicron variant.
Britain reported 438 new deaths from COVID-19, the highest daily total since Feb. 24 last year.
Health minister Sajid Javid earlier told parliament he was optimistic that COVID-19 measures introduced to reduce the spread of Omicron will be scaled back next week as cases and hospitalisations look to have peaked.
The government is considering phasing out EnglandΓÇÖs remaining pandemic restrictions, including working from home guidance and the use of vaccine passports, British media have reported.
Despite infections reaching record highs in recent weeks, the rapid roll-out of booster shots and the lesser severity of Omicron has meant hospitalisations and deaths have not risen as sharply compared with earlier waves of the pandemic.
Britain has reported 152,513 deaths from COVID-19 in total, the seventh highest death total in the world, with the vast majority of deaths occurring in the first year of the pandemic.
Sweden
Travelers to Sweden will no longer be required to show a negative COVID test before entering the country, the government said on Tuesday.
Sweden introduced rules for a recent negative COVID test on Dec. 28 last year in a bid to slow the spread of the more contagious Omicron variant. Since then, Sweden has repeatedly set new daily case records with Omicron now the totally dominant variant.
"Travelers are no longer considered to pose a particular risk of affecting the spread of Omicron in Sweden," the government said in a statement.
Sweden has recorded more than 20,000 new daily cases over the past few days, roughly double the previous record from earlier waves. The number of cases has put a strain on healthcare services but not to the same extent as before the vaccine rollout.
Vatican City/Italy
The second and third ranking Vatican officials under Pope Francis have tested positive for COVID-19, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who is secretary of state, had slight symptoms, and the deputy secretary of state, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, had no symptoms, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
He said both Parolin, 67, an Italian, and Pena Parra, 61, who is Venezuelan, had self-isolated in their residences in the Vatican.
The two meet with the pope regularly but it was not clear when their last meetings with the 85-year-old pontiff took place.
The Vatican has required its employees, most of whom live in Italy, to be fully vaccinated.
Italy, which surrounds the tiny and sovereign Vatican City, reported 83,403 COVID-19 related cases on Monday, against 149,512 the day before, while the number of deaths rose to 287 from 248.
France
The number of people with COVID-19 in French hospitals rose by 888 to 25,775, the health ministry said on Monday, the biggest one-day increase since early November 2020 - before the start of the country's vaccination campaign.
Finland
Finland will begin gradually easing COVID-19 restrictions from mid-February, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said after a day-long government meeting on Tuesday.
Finland would also stop doing health checks on Schengen Area borders after January as the Finnish health institute had earlier said they do not help with curbing the spread of the pandemic, Marin said.
The government in December decided all travellers coming to Finland would need to show proof of vaccinations or a healed COVID-19 infection and a recent negative test result.
The health institute estimated on Tuesday that omicron infections would peak in Finland within weeks rather than months.
Marin said her government is inclined to change the criteria for its vaccination passport but doing it would be legally difficult.
"The government wants to do this but it is very challenging from the point of view of fundamental rights," Marin said, referring to people who cannot take the vaccine or have been sick with COVID-19 without an official diagnosis.
Before infections begun to surge due to omicron, the government had introduced the passport as an alternative to restrictions and it could also be obtained by getting a test.
According to the government's new plan, gyms, swimming pools and other recreational venues would remain closed and restaurant opening hours be restricted until mid-February.
Marin said the government would look into updating its COVID-19 strategy which currently still is based on testing, tracing and isolation.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria reported 9,996 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, setting a new record daily tally following a surge of cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Health authorities in the European Union’s least vaccinated country said 161 deaths had been reported on Tuesday.
Bulgaria changed its rules that could prompt new restrictions, linking them to the occupancy of intensive care beds rather than the number of new infections.
For now, health authorities are not imposing new measures, with 5,223 people in hospitals and 541 in intensive care units.
Poland
Poland is experiencing a fifth wave of COVID-19 infections, the health minister said on Monday, warning that the spread of the Omicron variant could send daily case numbers soaring to levels not yet seen in the country.
Asia-Pacific
China
China is urging people to wear masks and gloves when opening mail, especially from abroad, after authorities suggested the first case of the Omicron coronavirus virus variant found in Beijing could have arrived via a package from Canada.
Authorities vowed to step up disinfection of overseas mail and are insisting postal staff handling it are fully vaccinated.
The precautions come less than three weeks before the capital opens the Winter Olympic Games and as several Chinese cities work to suppress new outbreaks of coronavirus infections.
"Minimize purchases of overseas goods or receiving mail from abroad," state broadcaster CCTV said late on Monday in a social media post.
"Be sure to protect yourself during face-to-face handovers and wear masks and gloves; try to open the package outdoors."
Health officials said the person found infected with the Omicron variant had opened a package from Canada that had been routed through the United States and Hong Kong, and transmission via the package "could not be ruled out".
David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it wasn't clear how it would be possible for the virus to survive in the mail given that it spreads via droplets surrounded by moisture and stops being infectious once it dries out.
When asked by CNBC about the idea that Omicron had been introduced into China through the mail, Pfizer Inc board member and former U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb said he didn't think it sounded plausible.
"It sounds like a lot of theory," he said.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong warned people not to kiss pets and ordered a mass cull of hamsters on Tuesday, to the outrage of animal-lovers, after 11 of the rodents tested positive for COVID-19.
A recent coronavirus cluster in humans traced to a pet shop worker prompted checks on hundreds of animals in the Chinese-ruled territory, with 11 hamsters found infected, officials said.
Echoing the mainland's zero-tolerance policy even as much of the world shifts to living with COVID, Hong Kong ordered 2,000 hamsters "humanely" put down, and imports and sales stopped.
Various pet shops were shuttered and disinfected around the city, while men in protective gear scoured the store at the heart of the cluster in the bustling Causeway Bay district.
The local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which runs veterinary clinics, urged a rethink.
"The SPCA is shocked and concerned over the recent government announcement on the handling of over 2,000 small animals, which did not take animal welfare and the human-animal bond into consideration," it said.
Japan
Japan's new COVID-19 cases jumped to a record on Tuesday, local media reported, as the government considered expanding measures to contain the infectious Omicron coronavirus variant.
Middle East and Africa
Israel
Israel will continue to offer a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot despite preliminary findings that it is not enough to prevent Omicron infections, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, predicting contagions stoked by the variant will wane in a week.
With his government scaling back Omicron counter-measures to ease the strain on the economy, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sought to cast Israel's still-high case numbers primarily as a result of an en-masse testing drive rather than infection rates.
The fastest country to roll out vaccinations a year ago, Israel last month started offering a fourth shot - also known as a second booster - to its most vulnerable and high-risk groups.
Namibia
Namibia's pandemic-ravaged tourism sector on Tuesday launched a campaign to encourage its employees to get inoculated against COVID-19 as vaccine hesitancy threatens to derail the sector's revival.
According to the World Health Organisation, Namibia is one of four countries - including Angola, Eswatini and Lesotho - in the southern African region that failed to meet a global 40 percent vaccination target by December 2021.
As of Monday, only 351,690 people or 19.8 percent of a revised eligible target population of 1.7 million have been fully vaccinated in the southwest African country, which has seen a surge in hospitalisations and deaths from the dominant Omicron variant.
Namibia recently adjusted its eligible population from 1.5 million after allowing Pfizer doses for children aged between 12 and 17 years, beginning December 2021.
Reuters
