Daily roundupSunday's key coronavirus developments from Luxembourg and abroad

Starting with Luxembourg

• An estimated 500 protesters made their way from Kirchberg to Glacis today in peaceful demonstration against coronavirus measures.

And abroad

• The UK has raised its Covid Alert Level from 3 to 4 today, due to the rapid increase in new cases caused by the Omicron variant. Level 4 means that there is high transmission and that “direct Covid-19 pressure on healthcare services is widespread and substantial or rising.”

• The number of registered COVID-19 cases in Russia now exceeds 10 million, data from the government’s coronavirus task showed on Sunday, but the latest wave of the pandemic has lost its momentum and the number of deaths is declining.

• The leader of the UK’s opposition Labour party said on Sunday (December 12) that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had broken the public’s trust over COVID-19 regulations, making him “unfit for public office.”

• As of Wednesday, Israel is adding further countries to its so-called ‘red list’ - if visiting Israel from a country on this list, regardless of vaccination status, managed isolation is mandatory. Among them are Belgium, Denmark, and the UK.
• In Germany, 14 police officers were injured during protests against the Corona policy in Greiz, Thuringia. In the night from Saturday to Sunday, up to 1000 people had gathered and formed at a bridge in the city area.
• The lockdown imposed in Austria due to a sharp rise in the number of Corona infections has come to an end - but only for vaccinated and recovered people. There are also regional differences in the relief.

• Posts shared on social media in the United States and South Africa claim that the World Economic Forum (WEF) made reference to the newly discovered Omicron variant in a report dated July 2021 – months before the latest mutation of the Covid-19 virus was announced. But this is false: the original WEF article cited on social media made no mention of Omicron, and it was only updated in November 2021 with details about the latest variant.

• Manchester United and Aston Villa are the latest PremierLeague clubs to be affected by outbreaks of coronavirus cases, according to reports on Sunday.