Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Dec. 27

The latest:

• Canada needs nurses, but training more of them isn't so easy.

• Omicron grounds thousands of global flights, scuttles holiday plans.

• 2 dead in outbreak at Quebec long-term care residence.

• INTERACTIVE | Track the spread of COVID-19

As the Omicron variant spreads ever more gloom around the globe ahead of New Year's Eve, governments are moving at different speeds to contain the scourge, with some reimposing restrictions immediately and others hesitating to spoil the party again.

In Britain, where the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus has sent caseloads soaring to record highs, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said Monday no further restrictions will be introduced in England before the new year. New daily infections in England are hovering around 100,000, and hospital admissions were up more than 70 per cent on Christmas from a week earlier.

"When we get into the new year, of course, we will see then if we do need to take any further measures, but nothing more until then, at least," Javid said.

Elsewhere in the United Kingdom, though, nightclubs have been ordered closed and limits on gatherings imposed in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, leaving the country divided in its approach to the crisis.

The Netherlands, meanwhile, has already shut down all nonessential stores, restaurants and bars and extended the school holidays in what largely amounts to a new lockdown. In Belgium, new measures went into effect Monday and over the weekend: Shopping in large groups was banned, and movie theatres and concert halls closed in the middle of the holiday season.

In France, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a set of restrictions set to begin next week, after New Year's. Among them: Big events will be limited to 2,000 people indoors and 5,000 outdoors; eating and drinking will be banned in theatres, at sporting venues and on public transportation; and working from home will be mandatory at least three days a week for employees whose jobs make it possible.

Also, a bill will be voted on in France next month to create a vaccine pass that will allow only inoculated people to enter public places, including restaurants, bars and movie theatres.

The measures come after France recorded more than 100,000 COVID-19 infections in a single day for the first time during the pandemic.

In the U.S., the Biden administration has strongly emphasized the importance of vaccinations, boosters and rapid testing, while New York City's sweeping mandate requiring nearly all businesses, big and small, to bar unvaccinated employees from the workplace took effect Monday. It was announced three weeks ago, soon after Omicron gained a foothold in the U.S.

The top U.S. infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned Monday that, with the rise of Omicron, "it's going to get worse before it gets better." He said authorities should seriously consider requiring that domestic airline passengers be vaccinated.

"When you make vaccination a requirement, that's another incentive to get more people vaccinated," he told MSNBC.

Omicron has forced thousands of flight cancellations and delays around the globe because of staffing shortages linked to the virus, scrambling holiday travel plans.

FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, counted more than 2,700 cancellations worldwide by Monday evening in Europe — about 1,100 of them within, into or out of the U.S.

Despite the variant's extraordinary ability to infect people, early indications are that it might cause milder illness than previous versions. That uncertainty is keeping governments guessing and resulting in widely varying strategies for beating back the surge.

In Greece, authorities announced additional restrictions — also effective after New Year's — after recording its highest-ever one-day total of new infections, nearly 9,300.

Health Minister Thanos Plevris said that starting Jan. 3, high-protection or double masks will be mandatory at supermarkets and on public transportation; entertainment venues will close at midnight, and capacity will be cut to 10 per cent at soccer stadiums, among other measures.

Other parts of Europe have hesitated to slap more restrictions on their citizens.

In Poland, a nation of 38 million where the daily death toll now often tops 500, now-closed nightclubs will be allowed to reopen on New Year's Eve, with the government unwilling to go against the will of the many voters opposed to restrictions and mandatory vaccinations.

And despite the highest death toll due to COVID-19 in Europe, Russia will ring in the new year with little if any restrictions. Many precautions will be lifted during the holiday period that runs for 10 days starting New Year's Eve. Russia also will not impose any additional travel curbs.

The official Rosstat statistical agency estimated that between April 2020 and October 2021, Russia had 537,000 virus-related deaths.

In Belgium, the move to close theatres and arts centres came in for especially heavy criticism.

"We need it also for our mental health. It is the only way for people to live experiences, to tell stories. It is of paramount importance for us to be open in these complicated and complex times," said Michael De Kok, artistic director of the Flemish Royal Theatre.

Some movie theatres stayed open in an act of civil disobedience.

As of Monday, more than 280 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.4 million.

What's happening across Canada

• B.C. adds 6,288 cases over weekend; experts fear true number could be higher.

• Manitoba reduces capacity limits as Omicron cases skyrocket.

• Ontario reports 9,418 new cases, 5 more deaths.

• Hospitalizations in Quebec rose by 38 per cent since Dec. 22.

• Tougher level 2 restrictions coming into effect in N.B. on Monday night.

• P.E.I. logs 156 new cases over the weekend, lists 30 new exposure sites.

• N.S. announces 581 infections, small outbreak at Halifax hospital.

• N.L. adds 357 cases over holiday weekend as testing ramps up.

• Nunavut mine sends employees home after 6 workers test positive.