(VOVWORLD) - The world had recorded more than 274.5 million COVID-19 infections as of Sunday, with more than 5.36 million deaths, according to worldometer.info.
The US continues to be the hardest-hit country with nearly 51.7 million cases and more than 827,000 deaths, followed by India and Brazil.
Highly-transmissible Omicron variant has been reported in 89 countries and cases are doubling in days, the World Health Organisation said on Saturday.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) of the UK on Saturday warned tougher restrictions are needed very soon in England to avoid hospital admissions reaching 3,000 a day.
Italy's national health institute (ISS) has said the country's north and south is seeing a strong acceleration of the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The ISS reported that its network of regional laboratories had so far reported 84 omicron cases.
The Netherlands will go into lockdown over the Christmas period to try to stop a surge of the Omicron coronavirus variant, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Saturday. He said that it is inevitable with the fifth wave and with Omicron spreading even faster than his country had feared.
Vietnam's Health Ministry has ordered a review all entries to Vietnam, beginning November 28, who were tested positive to the coronavirus within 14 days, for gene sequencing to detect the Omicron variant.
Vietnam is concerned about the Omicron variant entering the country although it has yet detected any, the Ministry of Health said in a document and urged localities to actively monitor the situation.