December 23, 2021

People walk along La Rambla in downtown Barcelona, Spain. Spain is reporting almost 700 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days. The Omicron variant has gone from 5% of new cases in Spain to 47% within one week.

Alpine Rescue Team members dressed as Santa Claus drop down the Policlinico Umberto I Hospital to meet with children hospitalized in the pediatric area, in Rome, Italy.

A diver wearing a Santa Claus costume performs at Koral Restaurant aquarium ahead of Christmas celebrations in Badung, Bali, Indonesia.

Catholic locals dressed as Joseph and Virgin Mary gather around a baby, five-moth-old Amarildo Vjerdha, who played the role of Jesus Christ, during a reenactment of the birth of Jesus Christ, in Hajmel, Albania.

Leonan Pereira da Silva plays the part of Black Santa during a food donation event for people living in the Vila Cruzeiro favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

This image fro above shows the bursting Piton de la Fournaise volcano on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

Amelie and Ludo Khayat hold each other during a visit at the COVID-19 intensive care unit of the la Timone hospital in Marseille, southern France. Ludo, 41, is recovering from spending 24 days in a coma and on a ventilator in a COVID-19 intensive care unit. Amelie began visiting her husband daily after he started to test negative for the virus.

Binax Covid-19 testing kits are handed out in the Bensonhurst section of the Brooklyn area of New York City.

Travelers form lines outside the TSA security checkpoint during the holiday season, as the coronavirus Omicron variant threatens to increase case numbers, at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, Dec. 22, 2021.