Health Service Executive CEO Paul Reid has said there has been an acceleration of Covid-19 cases and positivity rates over the last 48 to 72 hours and it would appear that as Ireland exits a Delta wave, it is entering an Omicron wave.

A group backed by international rights organisations and politicians says the EU, the US and the UK have received more doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the last six weeks than African countries have all year.

Hong Kong's oldest university has removed a statue commemorating the deadly 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square democracy protesters, the latest step in China's campaign to silence dissent in the city.

Australia's two most populous states re-introduced Covid-19 curbs as daily infections hit their highest amid an outbreak of the highly infectious Omicron variant and a rush on already-stretched testing clinics.

The Belgian government has reached a deal confirming that its existing nuclear power plants will close in 2025, while keeping up investment in nuclear power technology, public broadcasters RTBF and VRT have reported.

Over the past year, RTÉ News has shone a light on some of Ireland's most inspiring teenagers in our 'Quaran-teen' series of reports.

Rescuers in northern Myanmar have retrieved two more bodies after a landslide at an illegally run jade mine and warned that dozens of people feared missing are likely dead.

The Department of Social Protection said it issued weekly payments to 57,603 people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment this week, an increase of 2,267 on last week.

A number of people were taken to hospital yesterday evening after sustaining injuries in a multi-vehicle collision at Dublin Airport.

The Department of Health has confirmed 6,307 new cases of Covid-19. There has been a total of 5,890 coronavirus-related deaths notified in Ireland. This includes 55 deaths newly notified in the past week.

A Swedish company implanting microchips under the skin is promoting its devices for use as a Covid-19 health pass in a country with thousands of early adopters.

A new study from South Africa suggests that those infected with Omicron were much less likely to end up in hospital than those with Delta.

The death has been announced of the poet Thomas Kinsella. He was 93.

The HSE has held its final weekly Covid-19 briefing before Christmas, highlighting that the country faces a surge in cases in the coming weeks due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The Chief Executive of the HSE said Ireland is heading into January with a "much higher level of demand" on resources compared to last year.

Temperatures have soared in Greenland recently, the Danish Meteorological Institute said, in line with warming trends experts have linked to global warming.

The judge in British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell's sex abuse trial urged jurors today to be cautious of a surge in Covid-19 cases as they broke for a long weekend, after deliberating for two full days without reaching a verdict.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has said that a fourth vaccination will be necessary in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic due to the more contagious Omicron variant.

Britain reported more than 100,000 new daily covid-19 cases for the first time since widespread testing was introduced, with 106,122 today compared with 90,629 yesterday.

With Covid cases surging and the implications of Omicron still unclear, many people have been changing their Christmas plans.