Vaccinated New Zealanders in Australia will be permitted to travel home quarantine-free from February 27, while citizens elsewhere will be able to do so two weeks later, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday.

The Italian government relaxed its anti-COVID rules for schools on Wednesday, as the surge linked to the Omicron variant appears to be gradually coming under control.

The total number of COVID-19 infections reported in Germany since the start of the pandemic has surged to 10.19 million, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases reported on Wednesday.