Gaza Reports 1st Omicron Case

The Palestinian health ministry reported, on Sunday, the first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the Gaza Strip.

At a news conference, ministry official Majdi Dhair stated that the identified case is a Gaza resident who was infected within the coastal territory.

Dhair noted that the variant, first identified in southern Africa and Hong Kong last month, existed in Gaza and was now spreading among the population.

"We are ahead of difficult days. It is expected that the Omicron variant will spread fast," he told reporters.

Gaza, with a population of 2.2 million people, has registered 189,837 COVID-19 infections and 1,691 deaths.

On a separate note, thousands of Christmas Eve flights were canceled globally at the last minute because of the recent spike of Omicron cases.

The New York Times reported that United Airlines canceled at least 150 flights scheduled to leave dozens of airports on Friday, along with 44 more that was supposed to take off on Saturday, according to Flight Aware.

In a similar manner, dozens of flights were also canceled in Australia in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne as coronavirus cases surged to their highest since the start of the pandemic.