Six soldiers from
Niger and
Nigeria are killed and 16 others are wounded during a fight with
ISWAP militants in the
Lake Chad region of
Borno State, Nigeria. Twenty-two militants are also killed and 17 more are captured.
(Reuters)
Metro Manila moves into Alert Level 3 from January 3 to 15 amid an increase in the number of
COVID-19 cases and the detection of local cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.
(Philippine Daily Inquirer)
The
Philippines reports its first three locally transmitted cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.
(CNN Philippines)
Hong Kong reports its first potential community cluster of the
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, which are also the first locally transmitted cases reported by the city since June.
(Bloomberg)
Israel extends fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to elderly people in care facilities and begins administering fourth doses for vulnerable people, citing the high-risk of infection.
(Reuters)
Paris begins to implement mandatory
outdoor mask wearing for people over the age of 11 years. This comes as
France reports a substantial increase in new cases of the Omicron variant nationwide.
(France 24)
France reports a record 232,200 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which is also the highest daily total recorded in any European nation since the beginning of the pandemic.
(Arab News)
Cyprus reports a record for the fifth consecutive day of 5,048 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 166,827.
(In-Cyprus)
Greece reports a record for the fourth consecutive day of 40,560 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 1,170,293.
(Greek Reporter)
New Zealand moves COVID-19 traffic light settings for
Auckland from red to orange, allowing bars, restaurants and cafes that enforce the
vaccine pass requirement to remove crowd size limits and requirements to sit down, despite fears of community transmission of the Omicron variant.
(The Guardian)