While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Dec 26
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The cancellations upended plans for tens of thousands of holiday travellers over the Christmas weekend.
PHOTO: AFP
US airlines scrap hundreds of Christmas Day flights due to Omicron
US airlines cancelled more than 900 flights on Saturday, the second straight day of massive cancellations as surging Covid-19 infections have sidelined some pilots and other crew members, upending plans for tens of thousands of holiday travellers over the Christmas weekend.
A total of 913 Christmas Day flights, including domestic flights and those into or out of the country, were cancelled, up from 690 on Christmas Eve, according to a running tally on flight-tracking website FlightAware.com.
Around 1,110 flights were delayed.
The Christmas holidays are typically a peak time for air travel, but the rapid spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has led to a sharp increase in Covid-19 infections, forcing airlines to cancel flights as pilots and crew need to be quarantined.
India to start vaccinating teens, provide booster shots for health workers
India will begin vaccinating teenagers from the ages of 15 to 18 from Jan 3 and also administer booster Covid-19 vaccine doses for healthcare workers a week later, as Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 cases spike, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
Citizens who are older than 60 years and suffer from co-morbidities can also get booster shots of Covid-19 vaccines in January, Modi said in a televised national address on Sunday.
"India needs to be vigilant about the spread of the coronavirus," Modi said, adding that people should not pay attention to rumors nor panic about rising infection numbers.
England vaccinates on Christmas Day as Omicron Covid-19 cases soar
England pressed ahead with its Covid-19 immunisation campaign on Saturday in the race to inoculate as many people as possible while the number of cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant soars.
At Redbridge Town Hall east of London, National Health Service staff wore Santa hats as they welcomed queues of people and administered jabs, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
"Merry Christmas" signs were displayed on the walls of the centre's vaccine booths and festive pictures, including one of an elf giving a vaccine to another elf.
Western states need united front against divisive China: Canadian PM Trudeau
Western countries should have a united front against China to prevent the Asian state from using commercial interests to play them against each other, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an interview aired on Saturday.
Trudeau said China has been "playing" Western countries against one another as they compete for access to economic opportunities in the country.
"We've been competing and China has been, from time to time, very cleverly playing us off each other in an open market, competitive way," he said in an interview with Global television.
Two more members of K-pop group BTS test positive for Covid-19
Two more members of the K-pop group BTS on Saturday tested positive for Covid-19 following their return to South Korea from the band's first pandemic-era concerts in the United States, their management company Big Hit Music said.
Rapper RM, 27, and vocalist Jin, 29, were diagnosed with Covid-19 a day after Suga, a songwriter and rapper for the seven-member group, tested positive.
All three had completed second doses of a coronavirus vaccine in August, the company said.