A health worker poses with a syringe and dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at the Museum of Tomorrow, in Rio de Janeiro, on January 18, 2022...

© Reuters / Jeenah Moon Major US carrier Delta blames new Covid-19 cleaning rules for turning around plane that was halfway to Shanghai Delta Air Lines halted service to Shanghai so suddenly that it turned back a flight from Seattle that was already halfway to China, reportedly leaving some passengers stranded with expiring Covid-19 tests and visas...

A COVID-19 testing center in New York City The highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus is sending daily infections in parts of the United States soaring to levels higher than the pandemic peak of early 2021...

Passengers line up at John F. Kennedy International Airport after airlines announced numerous flights were canceled on Christmas Eve in Queens, New York City, US, December 24, 2021...

Blanket vaccine booster programs are likely to prolong the COVID-19 pandemic rather than ending it, as inequity in access to jabs could lead to more mutated variants that drag out the crisis, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warns...

Working oil pumps against a sunset sky. (Getty Images) Oil prices increased on Wednesday over worries about tight supply and a drawdown in US inventories, in spite of concerns about the possible hit to economic activity from the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant...