Overview: Omicron developments internationally

Factbox: Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus At least one person has died in the United Kingdom after contracting the Omicron coronavirus variant, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, the first publicly confirmed death globally from the swiftly spreading strain. Reuters Reuters

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* Britain's health secretary said Omicron will become the dominant variant in the capital in the next 48 hours, while Denmark expects it to become dominant this week. read more

* Norway will further tighten restrictions and speed up vaccination in a bid to limit an expected surge of the Omicron variant.

* Nigeria will destroy around one million expired vaccines and is taking diplomatic steps to try to reverse travel bans placed on it by some countries that have added the West African state to their COVID-19 "red lists". read more

* The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has the world's lowest vaccination rate at roughly 0.1%, urged people to get inoculated after the Omicron variant was detected there and as cases increase exponentially.

* Major Chinese manufacturing province Zhejiang is fighting its first COVID-19 cluster this year, with hundreds of thousands of citizens in quarantine and virus-hit areas suspending business operations, cutting flights and cancelling events.

* Health authorities in Tianjin have detected mainland China's first Omicron case, state media reported. read more

* India reported its lowest tally of active cases in 18 months, but a sharp drop in the use of protective face masks is causing concern after a rise in the number of infections with the Omicron variant. read more  

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* COVID-19 cases in Canada may rapidly rise in the coming days due to community spread of Omicron, mirroring the situation in the country's most populous province of Ontario. read more

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