Daily roundupThursday's key coronavirus developments from Luxembourg and abroad

Starting with Luxembourg

• The latest figures from Luxembourg show that 486 new cases of coronavirus were discovered over the last 24 hours.

• The Minister of Health confirmed that booster invitations would be sent out in the week following the fourth or sixth month anniversary of the second dose, depending on the vaccine first administered.

• Minister for Internal Security Henri Kox has announced that a protest zone will be set up in Luxembourg City for planned demonstrations against the government’s coronavirus restrictions this weekend.

• Close to 80% of people over the age of 12 are vaccinated.

• The Council of State has said the proposed restrictions for the new Covid law do not limit personal freedoms.

• The pandemic’s effects may still be reverberating around society, but Luxembourg’s economy has proved resilient, according to the latest Statec report.

• The Minister of Education told the press on Thursday that there were currently no plans to extend the Christmas holidays, nor were there plans to return to homeschooling in spite of the rising cases in Luxembourg’s schools.

And abroad

• Virus turns Indonesia Holiday island into desert of abandoned resorts.

• The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Thursday that cases of Omicron so far appear to be “mostly mild”, but cautioned it was still investigating whether the variant could cause severe disease.

• China‘s drug authority has granted emergency approval for the country’s first specialised treatment against Covid-19, found in clinical trials to significantly reduce hospitalisations and deaths among high-risk patients.

• Tottenham boss Antonio Conte revealed on Wednesday that eight of his players and five members of staff had tested positive for Covid-19.

• The Hong Kong government made its check-in app mandatory for most adults in bars and restaurants on Thursday, the latest expansion of coronavirus tracing tech at a time of heightened privacy concerns in the city.

• India and its neighbours should fully reopen schools to address the interrupted education of more than 400 million children whose classrooms were shut by the coronavirus pandemic.