catching the virus so prioritise the contacts that matter most to you. if you are meeting other people socially, test before you go every time, take the test as close as possible to the time you will be meeting and seeing other people and remember to record the result, whether that is positive or negative, and take all the precautions we know make a difference, limit the number of households in the group that you are meeting indoors and keep windows open, work from home if possible, and to employers, please enable your workers to work from home whenever practical, and wear a face covering on public transport and in shops and when moving about in hospitality and make sure the face covering fully covers your mouth and nose and follow all advice on hygiene. these steps make a difference and they are making a difference to each person s individual safety and to the collective safety of all of us so i would urge people to stick with them and my thanks again go to everyone who is doing that.
heads together to say, it s not adequate when the educational system says all you need is that 50% of your windows open and two air purifiers to be in place for classrooms for that to suffice in the middle of an airborne pandemic. it s not right for the children. i want to bring in morgan chesky here. you are at dallas love field airport. thousands of flights have been delayed or cancelled. as people are traveling over the holidays, trying to get home. rises in the omicron variant, and weather nationwide. a perfect storm. more than 17,000 flights cancelled since just christmas eve. walk us through what s the latest on that part of the story today. travel. yeah. it s frustrating no matter how you look at it. 17,000 flights cancelled over the last few days. 1700 tsa agents currently out with that omicron variant. or covid-19.
wearing facemasks and on shops and public transport. trite wearing facemasks and on shops and public transport- wearing facemasks and on shops and public transport. we can t emphasise does messages public transport. we can t emphasise does messages or public transport. we can t emphasise does messages or advice public transport. we can t emphasise does messages or advice enough, . does messages or advice enough, especially at a time when people want to get together with family and friends. what other advice would you give to people to try to stay safe and try to curb the spread of this virus over the festive season? it is ve eas virus over the festive season? it is very easy at virus over the festive season? it is very easy at this virus over the festive season? it 3 very easy at this time of year to mistake covid for another virus so i would say that any symptoms you have that might be a sore throat cough or anything that cuts could be covid, please isolate and get a pcr tes
figures from england and wales there were 137,583 new infections recorded in the latest 24 hour period again much lower than over the past week. in the netherlands, a lockdown to curb the spread of 0micron has prompted protests. thousands of people demonstrated in amsterdam against the measures, which have been in force since the 19th of december. riot police were used to break up the gathering and at least 30 people were arrested. the uk government is bracing itself for as many as one in four public sector employees to be off work because of covid in the coming weeks. sanchia berg reports. in scotland, pupils have been wearing masks as they learn with the windows open, for the last few months. the picture is similar now in northern ireland and wales. next week, english secondary students will follow suit as a government tries to reduce the spread of covid in schools. around half of children over 12
you are meeting indoors limit the number of households in your group to three at most and keep windows open and follow advice on hygiene. i want to record my thanks to everyone across the country who continues to do all of this and played their part in helping us through this latest very challenging phase of the pandemic. thank you very much and i m happy now to take questions. the first minister will now take questions first minister will now take questions on first minister will now take questions on the first minister will now take questions on the issues - first minister will now take i questions on the issues raised first minister will now take - questions on the issues raised in her statement questions on the issues raised in her statement and questions on the issues raised in her statement and i questions on the issues raised in her statement and i intend - questions on the issues raised in her statement and i intend to . questions on the issues raised in . her statem