Omicron dashes Bethlehem’s hopes of Christmas pilgrims

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.

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?

Even as it said Germany likely passed the peak of omicron infections, the Robert Koch Institute warned coronavirus cases remained high. Despite this, the country is considering relaxing quarantine rules.

Omicron XE, BA.4, BA.5 — there seem to be so many new omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that it's hard to keep track. Here's what we know so far.

Regulators in the UK are again the first in the world to provisionally approve a new COVID vaccine for use. The latest shot, from Moderna in the US, is supposed to offer protection against the Omicron variant as well.

The revamped vaccines by Moderna and BioNTech-Pfizer specifically target the currently dominant BA.4/BA.5 omicron subvariants. The jabs are part of a fall vaccination campaign that could begin within days.