WHO: Event cancelled is better than life cancelled

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged people to cancel some of their holiday plans to protect public health as the Omicron variant spreads globally, reported from the BBC.

"An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled," said WHO head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that "difficult decisions" must be made.

"All of us sick of this pandemic. All of us want to spend time with friends and family. All of us want to get back to normal. The fastest way to do this is for all of us, leaders and individuals, to make the difficult decisions that must be made to protect ourselves and others. In some cases, that will mean cancelling or delaying events... It's better to cancel now and celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve later."

Dr Tedros also stressed that the pandemic could be ended in 2022 by ensuring that 70% of the population in every country of the world was vaccinated by the middle of next year.

Dr Tedros added that there was now evidence that the variant "is spreading significantly faster than... Delta".

This is while the White House said on December 20 that President Joe Biden was not planning on "locking the country down". The country's top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, earlier warned that Christmas travel would increase the spread of Omicron even among the fully vaccinated.

A number of countries - including France and Germany - have tightened Covid restrictions and imposed travel curbs to try to halt the spread of the new variant. The Netherlands has introduced a strict lockdown over the Christmas period.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on December 20 that the government needed to "reserve the possibility" of bringing in new rules in England as Omicron cases surged, but did not announce further restrictions.

New Year's Eve celebrations in London's Trafalgar Square have been cancelled "in the interests of public safety", Mayor Sadiq Khan said.

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