Put off holiday festivities: WHO

New Delhi: The head of the World Health Organization has urged the people to scale back their Christmas plans, warning that festivities would in many places lead to "increased cases, overwhelmed health systems and more deaths".

There is consistent evidence that the Omicron variant is spreading faster than delta, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing.

Compared with other variants, Omicron is also more likely to infect people who are vaccinated or have been infected with the virus before, he said.