Evening roundupSaturday's key coronavirus developments in Luxembourg and abroad

Starting with Luxembourg

• Saturday’s update for Covid-19 in Luxembourg saw 21 new cases from 337 tests, with 2 more deaths.

• Health officials communicated on Saturday afternoon that the mutated coronavirus strain, variant B.1.1.7, was detected in the Grand Duchy.

• PM Xavier Bettel sat down for a New Year’s interview with RTL, looking back on an extraordinary year with many political challenges and, of course, dominated by coronavirus. Here’s a summary of the key points.

• As of Saturday morning, Findel Airport has a rapid test centre for travellers, who can now choose between a quick test or a PCR test.

And around the world

• The United States marked the New Year by passing the extraordinary milestone of 20 million Covid-19 cases, after global celebrations welcoming in 2021 were largely muted by the pandemic. It has illness has caused over 347,000 deaths in the country alone.

• New Year’s saw numerous illegal raves reported in France amid coronavirus restrictions. One was attended by 2,500 people in a warehouses in Lieuron, south of Rennes in Brittany on Thursday. Police stopped a further illegal gathering with 150 people in the Moselle department on Friday, where they were attacked with fireworks upon arrival.

• The UK government has taken a u-turn on the reopening of schools, with critics accusing them of creating chaos through the last-minute change of heart. UK Education Secretary Gavin Williamson in mid-December said that all primary school pupils in England would be returning to school as normal in January, though secondary pupils and college students would see a staggered return. With the number of new confirmed cases rising, however, he announced on Wednesday that some primary pupils in south-east England and parts of London would see a delayed return. Two days later, this was expanded to the whole of the capital. In excess of one million primary pupils will thus rely on remote learning for a least two weeks.

• Lebanon‘s hospitals are being overwhelmed by coronavirus cases, medics warned Saturday. The national Covid-19 task force met Saturday and recommended a three-week lockdown. With a population of around six million, Lebanon has recorded 183,888 coronavirus cases, including 1,466 deaths, since February. In what he termed a “catastrophic” situation, Sleiman Haroun, head of the Syndicate of Private Hospitals, said “the 50 private hospitals in the country receiving patients with Covid-19 are now almost full”.

• India on Saturday staged nationwide drills to start one of the world’s biggest coronavirus vaccination programmes as the drug regulator prepared to approve the first vaccine. The drills saw 25 health workers receive dummy vaccines at each of the centres to be used across the country in a test run ahead of the launch.

• Bangkok‘s nightlife will go quiet as a ban on bars, nightclubs and restaurant alcohol sales goes into effect Saturday, among a raft of restrictions aimed at curbing the kingdom’s rising coronavirus toll. Thailand initially appeared to have escaped the worst of the virus, registering just under 4,000 total cases in November. But an outbreak last month at a massive seafood market has spiralled into a resurgence, with infections now detected in 53 of the kingdom’s 73 provinces. By Saturday the caseload had jumped to over 7,300.

• Tokyo‘s governor on Saturday asked Japan’s central government to declare a new state of emergency as the country battles a third wave of the coronavirus, with record numbers of new cases.

• The Vatican announced Saturday its Covid-19 vaccination campaign will begin “in the next few days” with health workers and the elderly to receive vaccines from the second half of January. No mention was made in the short press release about Pope Francis and when the 84-year-old pontiff will receive a vaccine.