Daily roundupFriday's key coronavirus developments in Luxembourg and abroad

Starting with Luxembourg

• [block type="summary”]The latest figures from the Ministry of Health show that 223 new cases of coronavirus were discovered yesterday.

  • Pirate Party MP Sven Clement requested clarification from Minister of Internal Security Henri Kox on how police deal with Covid violations at demonstrations.

  • [block type="summary”]Fifteen more petitions have been approved for signatures by the Chamber’s petition commission, including one calling for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to be used in Luxembourg.

    And from abroad

    • EU nations fell out over how to divide up 10 million extra doses of coronavirus vaccine with Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic refusing to help five struggling countries. Austria donated 30,000 doses to Hungary in a gesture of solidarity.

    • The coronavirus pandemic has worsened long-standing inequalities around the world, which left unaddressed could undermine economic stability and lead to unrest, the IMF warned.

    • [block type="summary”]Police on horseback and using water cannon charged a crowd of up to 2,000 people gathered in a Brussels park on Thursday for a fake concert announced on social media as an April Fool’s Day prank.

      • European festivals are feeling a terrible sense of deja vu as spiking Covid-19 infections and a sluggish vaccine rollout force some of the region’s top-selling events to close for the second year in a row.
      • Finally, some hopeful news from Palau, where the Pacific archipelago’s president has declared the opening of a rare holiday travel bubble with Taiwan as a “ray of light” that shows the world is slowly emerging from the coronavirus pandemic.