Daily roundupFriday's key coronavirus developments from Luxembourg and abroad

Starting with Luxembourg

• The Ministry of Health has reported 67 new cases of coronavirus over the last 24 hours, while the death toll has increased by one.

• It was announced via social media that the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL) had reached 100,000 PCR test results. Meanwhile, how are hospitals coping with the current situation? Our colleague Monica Camposeo went to Centre Hospitalier Emile Mayrisch (CHEM) in Esch-sur-Alzette.

• The Delta variant remains dominant in Luxembourg and currently accounts for 94.4% of all cases.

• While in France the resumption of all sports championships have been made conditional on the presentation of a sanitary pass, the rules are a slightly different in the Grand Duchy.

And abroad

• Drug firm AstraZeneca on Friday announced positive results from a trial of a treatment for Covid-19 symptoms. A new trial of 5,197 participants who had not been exposed showed a 77-percent reduced risk of developing symptomatic disease, with no severe cases recorded, Astra said in a statement.
• New Zealand extended a national Covid-19 lockdown Friday as case numbers continued to rise and a Delta variant outbreak spread from Auckland to the capital Wellington.

• The Paralympic flame arrived in Tokyo on Friday as virus cases hit fresh records nationwide just four days before the Games begin.

• European business leaders have warned that Hong Kong’s stringent quarantine measures have left its residents “indefinitely trapped” in the city, threatening its status as an international business centre.

• Sri Lanka’s president is expected to announce a nationwide lockdown Friday, bowing to intense pressure from medical experts with coronavirus infections overwhelming hospitals, morgues, and crematoriums.

• Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett received a coronavirus vaccine booster shot on Friday, as the country began administering them to people aged 40 and over.