Washington, Jan 20 : The number of coronavirus cases confirmed globally has surpassed 337 million mark as the Omicron variant continues to spread rapidly setting new infection records in several countries.
There are 337,407,462 number of total cases and the global death toll stands at 5,564,236, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center’s data on Thursday.
Premier of Australia’s Victoria Daniel Andrews has urged residents to get Covid-19 booster vaccine as it was not an “optional extra”.
“I want to be really clear with everybody, this is not two plus an optional extra. It is three doses in order to be protected against severe illness as well as to minimize the likelihood of you getting the virus or giving the virus to someone else,” he said.
According to Johns Hopkins, a total of 9,711,081,600 people around the world have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
On Wednesday, the UK government announced lifting the restrictions imposed in December amid the rise in Omicron cases.
Earlier, the World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned the world leaders that the coronavirus pandemic “is nowhere near over” and new variants are likely to emerge even after Omicron.(UNI)