(Image source from: reuters.com)

The Omicron variant of coronavirus is creating ripples across the globe and several countries witnessed a huge rise in the new cases. In South Africa, the new cases of coronavirus got increased by 470 percent. The health authorities of the United Kingdom revealed that 86 new cases of the Omicron variant are reported in the country and the total cases reached 246. There were 160 cases of Omicron are reported in UK on Saturday and the nation reported a rise of new cases by more than 50 percent in a day. UK reported 43,992 new cases of coronavirus and the total cases reported till date are said to be 10,464,389.

54 new deaths are reported in the United Kingdom and the total deaths reached 1,45,605. British Health Secretary Sajid Javid revealed that all the people arriving in the UK aged above 12 years will have to produce a pre-departure test and the test must be taken not more than 48 hours before the departure of the flight. Nigeria has been included on the red travel list from today along with the other African countries where the spread of Omicron is huge. More than 88 percent of the people residing in the United Kingdom took up the first dose of the vaccine and around 81 percent of them received both doses of the vaccine as per the official reports. There are talks that 35 percent of them also received a booster dose in the country.

By Siva Kumar