Evening roundupThursday's key coronavirus developments in Luxembourg and abroad

Starting with Luxembourg

• The latest figures from the Ministry of Health show that 214 new cases of coronavirus were discovered yesterday. 5,938 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours.

• Statec published its latest report on the national employment market, which showed that frontline workers earned less than non-essential employees, despite the pandemic.

• A series of debates took place at the Cercle following the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation address on Tuesday, in which MPs reacted to the plans for the health crisis.

And around the world

• With nearly 1.1 million coronavirus deaths and close to 40 million cases worldwide, countries in many parts of the world are facing tough choices on how to control the disease without the economic and social devastation wrought by nationwide lockdowns.

• The European Parliament will hold next week’s session by videoconference as a precaution against coronavirus, its president said Thursday, despite France’s demand that it return to Strasbourg.

• President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday ordered a night-time curfew for Paris and eight other French cities to contain the spread of Covid-19 after daily new infection rates reached alarming record levels.

• New cases of coronavirus infections in Germany have soared to 6,638 in the past 24 hours, official data showed Thursday, reaching a daily level not seen since the start of the pandemic.

• With different German states implementing different travel restrictions, quarantine rules and test strategies, a confusing patchwork of regulations is leading to what the weekly Focus magazine has described as “corona chaos”.

• Hong Kong and Singapore on Thursday said they had agreed “in principle” to set up a bubble allowing residents to travel freely between the two financial hubs as long as they test negative for the coronavirus.

• Global stock markets plunged Thursday with investor sentiment hammered by fears that tighter coronavirus restrictions could derail a tentative economic recovery

• Roughly half of England is now under tougher coronavirus restrictions, after the government on Thursday announced more stringent measures for London and seven other areas to try to cut surging numbers of cases.