Grammys indefinitely postponed as Omicron spreads

Coronavirus cases have hit global records. Some countries have tightened measures, while others are pushing to relax rules because of the omicron variant's perceived milder infections and high national vaccination rates.

Call it an Olympic-sized gamble. Ahead of Chinese New Year holiday travel and the Winter Games, authorities there are sticking to their zero-Covid policy. As Omicron tears through much of the rest of the world, can the coronavirus really be barred from the Beijing Olympics?

Health officials are worried the sheer number of new infections will once again overwhelm the Himalayan country's fragile health care system.

Many schools in Germany are reopening their doors. Schools are hot spots for coronavirus transmission — and the number of cases is rising rapidly nationwide.

The omicron variant of COVID-19, which was first detected in South Africa, has so far resulted in fewer deaths and hospitalizations than previous waves. Though some experts warn not to take the variant lightly, life has almost returned to normal in cities such as Cape Town, where restaurants and bars are open for the first time since the pandemic began.

A new subtype of the omicron coronavirus variant is spreading in Denmark, the UK, India, Sweden and many other countries. The exact impact of the genome mutations is still unclear.

New coronavirus infections remain high in Europe, with the omicron variant quickly becoming dominant. It's feared the numbers will climb even further as more testing is done following holiday travel and gatherings.

With a slowly recovering economy, the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in India is affecting both the retail and service sectors.

The omicron coronavirus variant is more infectious than less severe than previous ones. Experts think they know why it's so transmissible - but do they know why it's less deadly?

Hong Kong is facing its toughest test yet in its "Dynamic Zero Covid" strategy. The number of cases this year is now higher than the number of infections seen in both 2020 and 2021. The city's health system is under pressure, suffering from a lack of hospital beds, inadequate testing capacities and over-strained quarantine centers. But the health crisis is turning political. For more on this, we turn to Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a political scientist at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Thursday.⁣

You got omicron in January and you've felt protected. But it's a few months on and a subvariant called BA.2 is spreading fast. So can you get omicron twice?