Annie Awards Going Virtual Again; Ceremony Moved To March Amid Omicron Surge

Train services are set to increase again as ScotRail recovers from staff shortages following a Covid surge over the festive period.

Around 700 Royal Mail management staff are set to lose their jobs as part of cost-cutting measures, the company has announced.

Los Angeles reported 102 Covid-related deaths today, the highest total since last March. That’s still well below the 290 deaths recorded last January, but the trend line is not good.

The Casting Society of America said today that its 37th annual Artios Awards will become “an intimate member virtual celebration” amid the Covid spike but will keep its St. Patrick’s Day date.

here.The Annie Awards have been handed out since 1972, initially to give lifetime-achievement honors and then, beginning in 1992, to honor the best animated films of the year. In the 20 years since the Academy Awards created a category for animated features, more than 93% of the Oscar nominees in the category have first been nominated for Annie Awards in either the Best Feature or Best Indie Feature category.

William Earl Due to the increased surges in Omicron, the 2022 Annie Awards have moved dates and gone virtual. The ceremony will now be held on March 12 in a virtual format.

Many restrictions in Scotland will be scrapped from Monday as cases from the Omicron surge fall.

Hollywood’s Covid safety protocols, which had been set to expire over the weekend, are being extended on a day-to-day basis as labor and management continue to work out details for a formal extension – the first since the highly infectious Omicron variant has led to a worldwide surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. A formal extension is expected to include changes to the protocols that reflect this new reality and the Center for Disease Control’s evolving guidelines.

In what may be the first sign of the beginning of the end of the Omicron surge in Los Angeles, the 7-day average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus has fallen dramatically in the past week. Test positivity is considered a better measure of the rate of spread than raw case counts because it is a percentage that is averaged over a week’s time.

UPDATED, 4:15 PM: The American Film Institute has set a date for its AFI Awards Luncheon, which had been postponed during Christmas Week as the Omicron variant began surging. The reception now is set for Friday, March 11, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The event originally was set for January 7.

The Omicron surge has forced another change in the movie awards-season calendar, with the Producers Guild of America saying Thursday it has decided to postpone its 33rd annual Producers Guild Awards.

EXCLUSIVE: With the Omicron variant continuing to surge across Los Angeles causing many of the major agencies keep their offices closed, sources tell Deadline WME is planing a transitional return on January 31 with hopes of a full return on February 15. Insiders add that boosters will be required in order for WME employees to return and that things could still change given the fluidity of the situation.

Broadway’s traditional post-holiday January doldrums teamed up with a slate of show closings and a national skyrocketing surge in Omicron cases to send box office tumbling by nearly a third last week. Combined grosses of $18 million for 27 Broadway productions were down 31% from the previous week’s $26 million.

With infections still surging, Los Angeles County’s cumulative number of Covid cases throughout the pandemic surpassed the 2 million mark today, with 43,582 new cases confirmed. Those new cases lifted the county’s cumulative case total to 2,010,964 since the pandemic began. Daily cases in the county set an all-time high on Sunday at 45,584.

California Governor Gavin Newsom offered details about the impact of Omicron during a press conference about his 2022-2023 budget proposal.

A radical plan to pay family to take care of a loved one to ease the crisis in the NHS is being considered across Scotland.

NATPE Miami has become the latest major in-person entertainment industry event to be shelved due to concerns over the current Covid spike driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant.

E3 will once again take on a virtual and online-only format in 2022, becoming the latest event casualty of the Omicron variant.

France is on the verge of relaxing travel rules for UK passengers brought in last month.