The United States is providing the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund and five other global aid groups an additional $580m to fight COVID-19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

The pledge came on Tuesday as health officials in the US said the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus now accounts for 73.2 percent of new cases over the past week, and as the country’s first known death linked to the variant is reported in the state of Texas.

Meanwhile, the WHO has said the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading faster than the Delta strain and is causing infections in people already vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID-19.

Thailand will reinstate its mandatory COVID-19 quarantine for foreign visitors and scrap a quarantine waiver from Tuesday, a government spokeswoman said. 

New Zealand also announced that it would delay its reopening plans until the end of February fearing a rapid spread of Omicron.

Source: Al Jazeera 

BDST: 1910 HRS, DEC 21, 2021
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