South Africa has lifted a midnight curfew with immediate effect, saying the peak of its fourth COVID-19 wave driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant has subsided.
In a statement, a minister in the South African presidency said the country made the changes based on the trajectory of the pandemic, levels of vaccination and available capacity in the health sector.
Meanwhile, Israel’s top health official has approved a second coronavirus booster jab for people with weakened immune systems, with a final decision on wider usage still pending.
The number of daily new COVID-19 cases worldwide has crossed one million for the first time since infections were first recorded two years ago, according to a tally by the Reuters news agency. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020.
In the United States, new infections have soared to their highest level on record, driven mainly by Omicron.
