Coronavirus live: Japan and Taiwan report Omicron surges; Ireland lifts restrictions

News Snapshot:

10.29am GMT The Philippines recorded 30,552 new Covid-19 infections on Saturday, as well as 97 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 53,406. The department of health said it was still too early to say whether Metro Manila could lower its Covid alert level from 3 to 2 next month, CNN Philippines reports. “I think it’s too early to declare and to say to people that we will shift or deescalate to alert level 2,” health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a briefing on Saturday. Vergeire said she was still working with earlier projections that cases might peak by the...