Overview: Asia/Pacific, Europe, U.S., Africa, Mideast

Dec 23 (Reuters) - Two vaccine makers said their shots protected against Omicron as UK data suggested it may cause proportionally fewer hospital cases than the Delta coronavirus variant, though public health experts warned the battle against COVID-19 was far from over. read more

* Rising infections in China's city of Xian have spurred a lockdown of its 13 million residents, with stretches of highway eerily bare on Thursday, as many people queued in the cold to get their noses swabbed at testing sites. read more

* Australia re-introduced curbs such as indoor mask-wearing, capacity limits and QR code check-ins to cover most of the population as daily infections hit a record. read more

* Britain reported a record 119,789 new daily cases, compared with 106,122 a day earlier. read more

* Italy is planning to tighten restrictions to try to curb a sharp rise in infections, including making mask-wearing mandatory outdoors again, the prime minister's office said. read more

U.S. President Joe Biden's steps to backstop hospitals and distribute coronavirus test kits, however welcome, are too little too late to stem a surge of Omicron-related cases over Christmas and New Year's, health experts said. read more

* Seven U.S. Department of Defense staff who travelled last week to multiple American bases, including Indo-Pacific Command on Hawaii, have tested positive for COVID-19, the Pentagon said. read more ...

* Zambia will introduce booster vaccines as it battles the respiratory disease which has infected over 200,000 people and killed more than 3,000, Health Minister Sylvia Masebo said. read more

* Lebanon's tourism ministry ordered restaurants, hotels, fitness centres and entertainment venues to require visitors to present either a certificate of vaccination or a negative PCR test before entering, it said in a statement. read more

* The Moroccan government has extended the nationwide health state of emergency to Jan. 31, the country's state news agency reported. read more

* Infections have started rising again across the six Gulf Arab states after months of low or falling figures, data from health ministries showed, as the Omicron variant spreads across the world. read more

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