Amid concern over the new variant of Covid-19 in different parts of the world, the global cases of the deadly virus crossed 106.4 million as of Tuesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday a new national lockdown for England until at least mid-February to combat a fast-spreading new variant of the coronavirus, even as Britain ramped up its vaccination program by becoming the first nation to start using the shot developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca.

All the UK returnees must stay in a 14-day institutional quarantine from January 1 to contain the spread of a new variant of Covid-19.