Evening roundupTuesday's key coronavirus developments in Luxembourg and abroad

Starting with Luxembourg

• The latest figures from the Ministry of Health show that 109 new cases of coronavirus were discovered yesterday. 6,039 tests were carried out in the last 24 hours. The percentage of positive tests was thus 1.80%.

• On Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel gave his eighth State of the Nation address at the Chamber. Here you can find the most important points.

• Minister of Health Paulette Lenert confirmed that work on the cannabis legalisation project in Luxembourg was progressing, even though it had been delayed by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Despite the rise in new Covid-19 infections, the government will not yet bring about new measures.

And around the world

• Johnson & Johnson said Monday it had temporarily halted its Covid-19 vaccine trial because one of its participants had become sick.

• EU countries on Tuesday agreed common criteria to coordinate coronavirus travel restrictions, in an effort to end the confusing patchwork of national rules that has developed during the pandemic.

• Covid-19 patients may experience more severe symptoms the second time they are infected, according to research released Tuesday confirming it is possible to catch the potentially deadly disease more than once.

• The British government on Tuesday insisted it is still “guided by science” following criticism that senior ministers had ignored the advice of experts three weeks ago for tougher restrictions to cut rising coronavirus infections.

• The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday forecast that the recession-wracked British economy will shrink by almost ten percent this year on coronavirus fallout.

• Hospitals in Paris could have up to 90 percent of intensive care beds packed with Covid-19 patients as soon as next week, the system’s chief warned Tuesday, as France braces for new measures to slow a surge in cases.

• China rushed Tuesday to test an entire city of nine million within days after a minor coronavirus outbreak, as the WHO warned that letting the pathogen run free to achieve herd immunity was “scientifically and ethically problematic”.

• Only massive investment in clean energy can help overcome the economic crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic while setting the world on a path to meeting its objectives to slow climate change, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday

• Tarmac meals have become an unlikely hit for coronavirus-battered Singapore Airlines, with hundreds of “passengers” paying the equivalent of a budget ticket just to dine inside grounded A380 jumbos.

• Cristiano Ronaldo has tested positive for coronavirus, the Portuguese football federation announced on Tuesday.

• Russia reported on Tuesday its highest-ever number of daily deaths and cases of people infected with Covid-19, fuelling concerns that a second wave of the pandemic is hitting the country. There were 13,868 new infections and 244 virus deaths, the government’s coronavirus crisis centre said, with both figures surpassing previous records set since the start of the outbreak.

• Peru’s best-known tourist site Machu Picchu has opened after months of coronavirus closure, but for just a single visitor -- a Japanese man stranded in the country by the pandemic. “The first person on Earth who went to Machu Picchu since the lockdown is meeeeeee,” Jesse Katayama posted on his Instagram account alongside pictures of himself at the deserted site.