A vaccinated air travel lane between the two countries also started on Monday.

Joyful scenes played out in Malaysia as people reunited with their loved ones.

“It’s been one year plus … when I see her today, I’m happy, I’m very happy,” retiree Siva Ganesan said after greeting his wife, Uma Devi Balakrishnan, at the bus terminal in southern Johor state. His wife works as a cleaner in Singapore and was stranded when borders were shut.

One Malaysian man kissed and hugged his baby whom he met for the first time, while another woman sank tearfully into her father’s arms.

“It’s surreal, doesn’t feel real at all because it’s been a while not coming home,” said Malaysian Cheong Weng Yin.

Across the border, Chua Pei Sze and her two daughters, age 10 and seven, were first in line for the first bus heading to Malaysia.

“Finally we can get to bring my daughters to see their grandmother in person … video calls just aren’t enough,” said the 43-year-old, who works in the shipping industry.

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Singapore has vaccinated 85 per cent of its entire population, while Malaysia has jabbed about 80 per cent.

Singapore reported a total of 747 new cases of Covid-19 infection as of Sunday, the lowest since September 13, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

On Sunday, the city state postponed the December 6 launch of vaccinated travel lanes with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia over concerns of Omicron.

Omicron, dubbed a “variant of concern” by the WHO, is potentially more contagious than previous variants. But experts do not know yet if it will cause more or less severe Covid-19 compared to other strains.

Japan to ban entry to foreigners from Tuesday

Japan will close its borders to new foreign arrivals from Tuesday and have its own citizens isolate on arrival from countries where the omicron variant has been found, while experts around the world analyse the risks it presents.

The entry ban will not apply to foreigners already residing in Japan, according to officials from the Foreign Ministry and other departments, adding they would be treated on the same basis as citizens. The move effectively stops new foreign businesspeople and students from entering the country. Foreign tourists are already banned from visiting.

Japanese nationals arriving from countries where the variant has been found would have to isolate at a government-designated facility, according to a joint advisory from the Foreign Ministry and other government departments.

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Japan’s new border restrictions comes as many others around the world are clamping down for fear that the newly discovered variant may be more contagious or cause more serious illness than previous iterations. Omicron is the most divergent variant detected in large numbers so far, raising concern that it may result in greater transmissibility, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Japan has seen a sharp fall in its infections in recent months. It recorded 61 new virus cases on November 28, compared with figures over 25,000 daily in mid-August. No new deaths were reported. The country is close to 80 per cent fully vaccinated and the use of masks is almost universal.

“Japan has the highest percentage of vaccinated people in G-7 and the shortest period of time has elapsed since people got their second shot,” Kishida added. “Our system for tackling the risk of omicron is stronger than that of other countries. So I want the people to deal with this calmly.”

Australia delays border reopening

Australia said on Monday it would delay the reopening of its international border by two weeks after reporting its first cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison convened a meeting of his national security committee and said it received advice from Australia’s chief health officer to delay the reopening after the first cases of the new variant were detected on Sunday.

Morrison said earlier this month Australia would reopen its border to foreign visa holders on December 1, in the latest steps to restart international travel. The country shut its borders in May 2020 and allowed only restricted numbers of citizens and permanent residents to enter.

“The temporary pause will ensure Australia can gather the information we need to better understand the Omicron variant, including the efficacy of the vaccine, the range of illness, including if it may generate more mild symptoms, and the level of transmission,” Morrison said.

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The delay is a blow to Australia’s A$2 trillion (US$1.4 trillion) economy, with employers long calling for a resumption of arrivals of students and skilled migrants to ease labour shortages. The return of foreign students alone are worth about A$35 billion a year to the Australian economy.

The announcement came as Australia recorded its fifth case of the Omicron variant. The bulk of the cases have been detected in Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales, while another person who arrived in the Northern Territory from South Africa has also tested positive.

Officials on Sunday ordered 14-day quarantine for citizens returning from nine African countries.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said he asked the country’s immunisation advisory group to review the time frame for Covid-19 booster shots, in light of the new strain. About 87 per cent of Australia’s population aged over 16 is fully vaccinated, above the rates seen in the United States, Britain and much of western Europe.

Australia has so far recorded about 209,000 coronavirus cases and 1,997 deaths since the pandemic began.

New Zealand to push ahead with easing measures

There were no cases of the Omicron variant in New Zealand at this stage but the developing global situation showed why a cautious approach was needed at the borders, she said.

“Omicron is a reminder of the risk that still exists at our borders,” Ardern said at the news conference.

New Zealand has some of the toughest border controls in the world and plans to keep borders closed to most international travellers for a further five months.

It also introduced fresh border measures for travellers from nine southern African nation on the weekend, announcing that only citizens from these countries can travel to New Zealand and will have to stay in state quarantine for 14 days.

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Ardern said a lot more evidence needed to be gathered to understand the impact of the Omicron variant. “It may impact on our vaccines, but it may not. It may be more severe or it may be more mild than Delta … we simply don’t know,” Ardern said.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the Director General of Health, said authorities were looking at whether more needed to be done at the borders to keep Omicron away. “It’s really just looking to keep it (Omicron) out while we learn more about it,” Bloomfield said.

New Zealand moves into a new “traffic light” system from Friday that rates regions as red, orange or green depending on their level of exposure to Covid-19 and vaccination rates. Auckland, the epicentre of the country’s Delta outbreak, will start at red, making face masks mandatory and putting limits on gatherings at public places.

New Zealand has had about 11,000 cases so far and 43 related deaths.

South Korea shelves plans to ease curbs

South Korea said on Monday it has shelved plans to further relax Covid-19 curbs due to the strain on its health care system from rising hospitalisation and death rates as well as the threat posed by the new Omicron variant.

President Moon Jae-in said the crisis had deepened and called for a united response to prevent the variant from entering the country, including the mobilisation of more personnel and tightening contact tracing.

“Numbers for new confirmed cases, severe cases and deaths are all on the rise and hospital bed capacity is tighter,” Moon told a special Covid-19 response meeting.

This month, South Korea lifted restrictions on operating hours for restaurants and cafes. It was going to lift limits on hours for bars and clubs as well as allow parties of up to 100 people from December 13 and then scrap all limits on gatherings by mid-February – but those plans are now on hold.

There were 3,309 new Covid-19 cases logged in South Korea for Sunday – down from a record high of 4,116 marked last week but still much greater than levels of around 2,000 before restrictions on cafes and restaurants were eased this month.

The country has had 444,200 cases and 3,580 deaths since the pandemic began. Almost 80 per cent of its population of 52 million is fully vaccinated.

Philippines seeks to vaccinate 9 million people in 3 days

It comes as the Southeast Asian nation on Monday launched a three-day vaccination drive targeting nine million people as young as 12 in an effort to accelerate the roll-out of jabs.

Authorities deployed security forces and used tens of thousands of volunteers to help administer the shots.

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The programme was scaled back from an earlier target of 15 million shots, but would still be a record in a country where vaccine hesitancy remains an obstacle and there are logistical hurdles to reach people in the sprawling archipelago.

Three million vaccinations per day is nearly four times the average of 829,000 daily shots in November. An official said news of the Omicron variant made the campaign even more vital.

“It is better to be prepared for the effects of Omicron,” vaccination tsar Carlito Galvez told CNN Philippines on Monday.

The Philippines has faced one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in Asia and has been slower than many of its neighbours in immunising its people. About 35.6 million people have been fully vaccinated, or a third of its 110 million population.

The country aims to immunise 54 million people by the end of 2021 and 77 million by next March.

New infections have fallen sharply to an average of 1,679 a day in November from a peak of 18,579 average daily cases in September, paving the way for a wider economic reopening.

Vaccination rates have remained uneven, with 93 per cent of the capital region’s residents fully inoculated as of mid-November compared with 10.9 per cent of the predominantly Muslim regions in the southern Philippines, government data show.

The government has said it would deploy 160,000 volunteers in 11,000 vaccination sites nationwide for the three-day campaign.

Reporting by Reuters, Kyodo, Bloomberg, AP