Covid live: Germany tightens restrictions on travel from UK

UK reports more than 90,000 new cases of coronavirus; World Health Organization says variant spreads significantly faster than Delta

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The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading significantly faster than the Delta strain in countries with documented community transmission, with a doubling time of 1.5- to 3 days, the World Health Organization has said.

The Omicron variant, which was designated as a variant of concern on 26 November, has been identified in 89 countries across all six WHO regions as of 16 December, Reuters quoted the WHO as saying.