A New Year shorn of mass celebrations beckoned Thursday for millions around the world as the number of daily COVID infections, driven by the Omicron variant, surged through another symbolic high.Coronavirus, first detected two years ago and declared a global pandemic in March 2020, has killed more than 5.4 million people, triggered economic crises and seen societies ricochet in and out of lockdowns.The latest variant, Omicron, while tentatively considered to cause milder illness, has pushed i

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:New Year DampenerMillions around the world brace for drastically curtailed New Year celebrations amid record coronavirus cases fuelled by the Omicron variant.More Than One Million Cases The number of daily new COVID-19 cases worldwide crosses one million for the first time since the pandemic began two years ago, according to an AFP tally of the week of 23-29 December.J&J Booster 85 Percent EffectiveA booster of US cor

From the Mars Ingenuity helicopter's first powered flight on another world to the launch of the James Webb telescope that will peer into the earliest epoch of the Universe, 2021 was a huge year for humanity's space endeavours.Beyond the science milestones, billionaires battled to reach the final frontier first, an all-civilian crew went into orbit, and Star Trek's William Shatner waxed profound about what it meant to see the Earth from the cosmos, as space tourism finally came

A COVID variant-driven "tsunami" threatens to overwhelm healthcare systems, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday as AFP data showed cases have surged across the world in the past week to levels never seen before. Highly transmissible Omicron propelled the United States, France and Denmark to fresh records on Wednesday, with AFP's tally of 6.55 million infections reported globally for seven days through Tuesday demonstrating the unprecedented spread.The fi

The risk posed by the Omicron variant is still "very high", the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday, after COVID-19 case numbers shot up by 11 percent globally last week.Omicron is behind rapid virus spikes in several countries, including those where it has already overtaken the previously-dominant Delta variant, the WHO said in its COVID-19 weekly epidemiological update."The overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high," the UN h

Rapid COVID home tests are more likely to give a false negative with the heavily-mutated Omicron variant compared to earlier strains, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday.The news comes as the country is facing a massive surge in cases that experts say is being under-captured as a result of a testing crunch, with long wait times for the more accurate PCR tests, and home kits in extremely short supply.In a statement, the FDA said it was collaborating with the National Institu

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:Holiday ChaosHoliday travel chaos around the world continues with around 2,700 flights cancelled Monday and 860 more on Tuesday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.No 'Panic' President Joe Biden says some United States (US) hospitals could be "overrun", but that the country is generally well prepared to meet the latest COVID surge and Americans need not "panic".Chinese Lockdown Tightened&amp

Holiday travel headaches and safety worries swelled Sunday with thousands of flights cancelled, events scrapped and new Omicron cases soaring, as people wrap up Christmas celebrations bruised by a resurgent COVID pandemic.Some 7,900 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

A handful of Myanmar nurses hiding from the junta have been running makeshift clinics to treat COVID patients and resistance fighters with medicine smuggled past military checkpoints.With bags packed, they are always ready to flee as healthcare workers find themselves at the forefront of a civil disobedience movement against the February coup and a crackdown on dissent that has killed more than 1,300, according to a local monitoring group.A boycott of government institutions has left many hos

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:Pandemic Christmas 2The world rings in a second pandemic Christmas - and a third since the first outbreak in China - as the fast-spreading Omicron virus brings the prospect of yet more COVID restrictions.Thousands Of Flights CancelledAt least 5,700 flights have been cancelled worldwide over the long Christmas weekend and thousands more are delayed, tracking website Flightaware.com says.Pope Prays For VaccinesPope Francis in his Christ