Santa delivers vaccination booster for thousands in UK

Thousands of people across England are spending a few minutes of Christmas Day to line up under leaden winter skies to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as the omicron variant fuels a surge in infections across the country.

Britain has expanded its booster program over the past two weeks, reopening sports stadiums and cathedrals as inoculation hubs, after research showed that two doses of the vaccine weren't enough to protect against the highly transmissible omicron variant.

The omicron threat was underlined by data released by the Office for National Statistics, which estimated that 1.7 million people in the UK had COVID-19 in the week ending Dec. 19, the highest number since comparable figures were first recorded in autumn 2020.