Evening roundupMonday's key coronavirus developments in Luxembourg and abroad

Starting with Luxembourg:

• The latest figures from the Ministry of Health show that 91 new cases of coronavirus were discovered yesterday, while six more people have died.

• [block type="summary”]In a press conference, PM Xavier Bettel and Minister of Health Paulette Lenert announced further restrictions from 26 December, including an extended curfew, a push for working from home, closure of non-essential shops and cancellation of most sporting activities.

  • Business owners have noticed a growing presence of shoppers from the Greater Region, who flock to Luxembourg City despite restrictions in place.
  • A picture on Facebook showing crowds standing closely together without social distancing at Findel airport stirred a conversation about the government’s restrictions and travel.

  • The director of the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (CHL), Dr Romain Nati, expressed his outrage over the protest against coronavirus restrictions that took place in the capital on Saturday.

  And around the world:

  • Countries around the world continued to ban flights and travellers from Britain to prevent the spread of a more-infectious new coronavirus strain, called “out of control” by the UK government.

  • British travellers still arriving in Germany on Sunday were prevented from leaving the airport, with health officials and nurses -- some dressed in hazmat suits -- administering immediate Covid-19 tests. Elsewhere, the abrupt cancellation of flights in and out of the UK following the detection of a mutant strain of coronavirus left many people -- Britons and other nationals -- stranded just days before Christmas.
  • It is not too late for Europe to contain the new variant of Covid-19 exploding in southeast England, a top coronavirus mutation tracker told AFP.
  • Britain could face a shortage of fresh produce and greens due to transport chaos at the border as tortuous Brexit talks linger and more countries shut borders after the emergence of a more contagious Covid-19 variant in England.
  • A nurse at a hospital in Connecticut became one of the first people in the United States to receive the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine on Monday.
  • The European Medicines Agency said on Monday that it had approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for inoculations to start across the EU within days.
  • Belgium’s State Secretary for Budget and Consumer Protection Eva De Bleeker accidentally tweeted the prices of different coronavirus vaccines, a matter that was supposed to be kept confidential.
  • Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha on Monday blamed a coronavirus outbreak linked to the kingdom’s largest seafood market on low-paid migrant workers employed in the country’s lucrative shrimp industry.
  • Middle Eastern countries said they would halt all passenger flights and close their borders for a week or longer, after a new strain of coronavirus spread quickly in England.