INTERNATIONAL: More than 4,500 commercial flights were cancelled around the world over Christmas weekend, as the Omicron variant continues to drive new waves of Covid-19 infections.
According to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.com, on Friday (Christmas Eve) alone, at least 2,401 flights were cancelled globally, and nearly 10,000 more flights were delayed. On Christmas day, 1,779 flights were shown to have been cancelled, and an additional 402 flights scheduled for Sunday joined the lot of cancellations.
A quarter of all cancelled flights over Christmas weekend were shown to be either within, into or out of the United States, according to FlightAware. United Airlines and Delta Air Air Lines were among the first commercial airlines to report a wave of flight cancellations, due a shortage of flight personnel as a result of surging Covid-19 infections.
The surge in cases has been attributed to the highly transmissible Omicron variant, which was recently confirmed to be the dominant variant in the United States, accounting for nearly three-quarters of cases, and as many as 90% in some areas.
The average number of cases in the United States has risen to 179,000 per day over the past week. On Friday, New York reported a new daily record of more than 44,000 confirmed cases, and in total, at least 10 other states set new single day case records on Thursday or Friday.
Across the pond in England, government data showed a record tally of 122,186 new cases nationwide on Friday, marking the third day cases surpassed 100,000. Additionally, the Office for National Statistics reports that one in 20 people in London had tested positive for Covid-19 last week, which they estimate could rise to one in 10 by early next week.
Also in Europe, France hit another Covid-19 case record on Friday, with a daily tally exceeding 94,000. Covid-19 hospitalizations also reached a seven-month high, which led the French government to convene a special meeting for Monday that could potentially reintroduce new public health restrictions.
Recent research has suggested that the Omicron variant produces milder illness and lower rates of hospitalization than previous Covid-19 variants, but health officials across the globe have remained cautious about the outlook.
