Nepal has started giving Covid-19 vaccine booster shots as coronavirus infections surge due to the spread of the Omicron variant, Reuters reports.

Daily cases have jumped by 4,961, the biggest 24-hour increase in more than six months, taking total infections to 955,206, government data showed. Covid-19-related deaths stand at 11,620, the data showed.

The booster shots will be restricted to frontline workers for one week, the Health Ministry said, after which they'll be offered to people 60 and older. “The booster shots will be given to those people who have completed six months after getting a second vaccine dose,” the government said in a statement.