Six soldiers from Niger and Nigeria are killed and 16 others are wounded during a fight with ISWAP militants in the Lake Chad region of Borno State, Nigeria. Twenty-two militants are also killed and 17 more are captured.
Hong Kong reports its first potential community cluster of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, which are also the first locally transmitted cases reported by the city since June.
Israel extends fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to elderly people in care facilities and begins administering fourth doses for vulnerable people, citing the high-risk of infection.
France reports a record 232,200 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, which is also the highest daily total recorded in any European nation since the beginning of the pandemic.
New Zealand moves COVID-19 traffic light settings for Auckland from red to orange, allowing bars, restaurants and cafes that enforce the vaccine pass requirement to remove crowd size limits and requirements to sit down, despite fears of community transmission of the Omicron variant.
Metro Manila moves into Alert Level 3 from January 3 to 15 amid an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases and the detection of local cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.
Paris begins to implement mandatory outdoor mask wearing for people over the age of 11 years. This comes as France reports a substantial increase in new cases of the Omicron variant nationwide.