beijing, shanghai, harbin and inner mongolia. no new cases of the omicron variant in china yet. the same can't be said for the rest of this region. so far this new variant has been identified in several countries, including two here in japan, 13 in australia, four in hong kong, five in south korea, two in india, and malaysia, which just reported its first case today. the case in malaysia involves a student studying at a local university who had arrived in malaysia from south africa on november 19th. that's before the first reported case of this new variant was reported to the w.h.o. that being said, the w.h.o. officials say the variant is likely already circulating in many countries, more than what has been reported so far, and now with this new variant starting to spread, officials point to our experience throughout roughly the past two years as a guide for what needs to be done now. and they say it is important for countries to focus on higher