The World Health Organization has urged people to cancel some of their holiday plans to protect public health, as the Omicron variant spreads globally.
"An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled," said WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, adding that "difficult decisions" must be made.
Tedros said that "all of us are sick of this pandemic. All of us want to spend time with friends and family. All of us want to get back to normal".
But he said that everyone, "leaders and individuals", had to make difficult decisions to protect people, including by cancelling or delaying events.
"It's better to cancel now and celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve later," BBC cited him as saying.
Tedros also said that the pandemic could be ended in 2022 - if 70% of the population of every country of the world was vaccinated by the middle of next year.
