Covid-19: Nixed flights, surging Omicron cases deliver Christmas gut punch

Holiday travel headaches and safety worries swelled with thousands of flights cancelled, events scrapped and new Omicron cases soaring, as people wrap up Christmas celebrations bruised by a resurgent Covid-19 pandemic.

Some 8,300 flights have been grounded and tens of thousands more delayed from Friday through Sunday — one of the busiest travel periods of the year — with multiple airlines acknowledging that Omicron spikes have prompted staffing shortages.

Effects have rippled worldwide and the hurt was expected to bleed into the work week, with more than 1,100 flights already facing cancellations on Monday and almost 300 more on Tuesday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.

The highly transmissible Omicron strain has sent new cases skyrocketing across the globe, with countries reviving dreaded lockdowns, major sports leagues cancelling Boxing Day football and rugby fixtures, and cruise ships returning to port with Covid-infected passengers.

On Monday, Australia and France recorded more than 100,000 virus infections in a single day for the first time since the start of the pandemic. President Emmanuel Macron’s government held emergency meetings on Monday, looking to push a draft law that would require vaccination to enter all restaurants and many public venues, instead of the current health pass system which allows people to produce a negative test or proof of recovery if they’re not vaccinated.

In Australia, though, the authorities refrained from imposing new restrictions saying hospitalisation rates remained low.

In China’s Xi’an city, 13 million residents were confined to their homes on Sunday. The authorities have begun widespread disinfection measures since to counter a 21-month high jump in Covid infections. Authorities are spraying disinfectants across the city and asking residents to close windows and avoid touching architectural surfaces and vegetation on streets.

Governments worldwide are also scrambling to boost testing and vaccinations.

Still, cases have soared. New York’s health department said Covid pediatric hospitalisations have risen four-fold over the past two weeks as Omicron took hold.

In Israel, a hospital administered fourth Covid-19 vaccine doses to a test group of health workers on Monday, in what it called the first major study into whether a second round of boosters will help contend with the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

Results of the trial, likely to be closely watched internationally, will be submitted to Israel’s Health Ministry in about two weeks, said a spokesperson for Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv.