Over the past few days, Health Minister of Malaysia, Khairy Jamaluddin announced  a spike in Omicron cases throughout the country, after a group of unvaccinated pilgrims tested Covid-19 positive. 

Read here. 

Since then, pilgrimages have been temporarily banned, Malaysians asked to adhere to strict SOPs and receive their booster shots, in order to curb the further spread of the virus. 

Extremely infectious and said to be possibly more dangerous than the Delta variant, cases have again soared in many countries worldwide, as each find means to handle yet another wave.

Reported by Reuters, for the first time in a single day, Australia received more than 100,000 positive cases yesterday (Jan 8th). 

Having over 90% of the population fully vaccinated, the country announced it's measures to administer vaccines to children aged 5-11 beginning Monday (Jan 10th). 

Besides that, several states have also reintroduced mask mandates, as means to contain the surge. 

For cities in China, just a couple of cases have pushed state governments to go into total lockdowns in the beginning of the year. 

Japan which opened their international borders in 2021, closed them once again for an indefinite period in November, after receiving a handful of cases. 

Now, expected to reach 5,000 by Friday (Jan 14th), many states throughout the country have plans to into a "quasi-state of emergency".