Daily roundupFriday's key coronavirus developments from Luxembourg and abroad

Starting with Luxembourg

• [block type="summary”]The latest figures from the Ministry of Health show that 132 new cases of coronavirus were discovered over the past 24 hours.

  And abroad

  • [block type="summary”]Health workers and authorities in Nepal are struggling to contain a massive surge of Covid-19 cases as infections spill over from neighbouring India’s deadly second wave.

    • Tunisia ordered a partial lockdown from Sunday for the week-long Eid al-Fitr holidays, warning that any further increase in coronavirus infections could overwhelm specialist care facilities.
    • Germany seems to have halted a surge of coronavirus infections driven by the British variant, Health Minister Jens Spahn said Friday, cautioning however against lifting restrictions precipitously. Furthermore, all 12- to 18-year-olds will be offered vaccines in the summer “on the condition of the expected approval, if nothing unforeseen happens”, he said.
    • Waiving patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines is fiercely opposed by Big Pharma because they say it would set a precedent that could threaten future innovations, and insist the move would not speed up production.
    • As restaurants across France prepare to fire up stoves after months of lockdown, owners are facing an unexpected challenge -- many of their workers aren’t coming back to the long, hard hours of food service.
    • They haven’t been allowed to have each other over to their homes for a year now because of Covid. So come rain or shine, two 73-year-old Swedish twins have met every Saturday, each on their side of the border, on a bridge that links Norway and Sweden.