Holiday gatherings, JN.1 variant fuel COVID-19 spread: WHO

GENEVA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Holiday gatherings and the globally dominant JN.1 variant fueled the spread of COVID-19 across the world in December, head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

Almost 10,000 deaths from COVID-19 were reported to the WHO in December, while hospitalizations rose 42 percent and ICU admissions jumped 62 percent over the previous month, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press briefing in Geneva.