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Existing COVID-19 vaccines are probably effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalisation from the newly identified Omicron variant, a top South African infectious disease expert said on Monday.

Japan, the world's third-biggest economy, will close its borders to all foreigners, while Australia's plans to re-open to skilled migrants were also in doubt as nations scrambled on Monday to rein in the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are working on vaccines that specifically target Omicron in case their existing shots are not effective against the new coronavirus variant, the companies said on Monday.

President Joe Biden planned to meet with chief executives of major retailers and other companies on Monday to discuss how to move goods to shelves as the U.S. holiday shopping season begins in the shadow of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

The first probable case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been detected in Switzerland, the government said late on Sunday, as the country tightened its entry restrictions to check its spread.

As a car drove into the parking lot of Jackson Women's Health Organization clinic, the only abortion provider in the state of Mississippi, anti-abortion activist Beverly Anderson leaned in to speak to the woman in the passenger's seat.

Ukraine has introduced mandatory 14-day self-isolation for travellers returning from countries where the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been detected, the health ministry said on Monday.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes arrived at a California court on Monday to testify for a fourth day at her fraud trial, where she has portrayed herself as an entrepreneur who faced challenges in an attempt to reshape the blood-testing industry.

Spain has detected its first case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in a 51-year-old man who arrived from South Africa on Sunday after a layover in Amsterdam, Madrid's regional health authority said on Monday as Spain's overall infection rate rose.

The United States is enhancing its COVID-19 surveillance to distinguish domestic cases of the Omicron variant from the still-dominant Delta, the head of the association of state-run public health laboratories told Reuters on Monday.