Ómicron forces the cancellation of thousands of flights in the world and prevents family reunions for Christmas

Photo: DAVID MCNEW / AFP / Getty Images

Millions of people are facing flight cancellations and more restrictions due to covid due to the increase in cases due to the new omicron variant of the coronavirus.

And at the same time that new security measures grow. Italy, Spain and Greece, for example, have recovered the measure of making the use of masks mandatory even in open spaces.

The region of Catalonia , in northeastern Spain, has also imposed a nightly quarantine and the Netherlands maintains a strict closure.

Although omicron is not as severe as other variants of the coronavirus, scientists are concerned about the number of cases.

This Thursday there were record figures in the United Kingdom, France and Italy.

“When we have millions and millions of sick people at the same time, it is not necessary for a large percentage of those people to collapse hospitals,” said Dr. Hallie Prescott, professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan to the newspaper The New York Times.

America’s leading infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci , warned at the beginning of the week that Christmas trips would increase infections even among people who are fully vaccinated.

Thousands of flights around the world have been canceled, according to the FlightAware website, so many typical family gatherings on these dates will be prevented.

This Friday some airlines in the United States said that they suffer from a lack of personnel due to the positives among the crew, which forces these people to be isolated.

United Airlines said the growing number of cases per omicron has a “direct impact in flight crews and personnel who direct operations. ”

In Australia, thousands of holiday trips were also affected: more than 129 Sydney domestic flights and Melbourne to other cities were canceled.

One for A spokesperson for Jetstar airline said the company had redirected most of the affected travelers “so they can reach their destinations in time for Christmas.” It’s at least the first time in two years that Australians can travel between states on vacation.

Australia said it will reduce the time between the second vaccine and the booster dose to four months and even do it to three next month.

South Korea, Thailand and the United Kingdom also reduced this time window to three months in December.

More restrictions

Many European countries are preparing new restrictions just after the holiday period . Germany will restrict private meetings to a maximum of ten people and will close clubs as of 28 from December. Football matches will be played behind closed doors.

Portugal has ordered bars and nightclubs to close as of 26 December and remote work at home will be mandatory from that date until January 9.

More than 5.3 million people have died of covid worldwide, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. There have been more than 278 million confirmed cases .

In Bethlehem, where Christians believe that Jesus was born, there will again be a midnight mass on a reduced scale, without the thousands of pilgrims who were common before the pandemic.

However, Pope Francis is scheduled to celebrate Christmas Eve Mass and Christmas Day blessing from St. Peter’s Basilica.

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