Good afternoon.
I was going to start with a joke about wishing I was on the Boxing Day Test liveblog instead of this one, but given how things are unfolding in Melbourne I don’t really want to talk about the cricket.
Instead, let’s take a quick look at how other countries are faring with coronavirus over the holiday period.
In South Korea, Reuters reports the country’s second-highest daily number of cases on Saturday has prompted authorities to plead for end-of-year gatherings to halt. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said there were 1,132 new coronavirus cases on Friday, not too far off the record of 1,241 logged a day earlier.
“The virus is spreading whenever and wherever it wants,” health minister Kwon Deok-cheol said at an intra-agency meeting.
“As we stand at the crossroads of the third wave, how we stop the spread hinges on how we spend this year-end and New Year period.”
The government has already banned gatherings of more than four people in the greater Seoul area and closed down ski resorts and other tourist spots, but is considering further restrictions.
In Germany, meanwhile, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 14,455, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday. The reported death toll rose by 240 to 29,422, the tally showed.
And in France, the Associated Press reports that authorities have confirmed the first case on its soil of the British virus variant. The new strain of the virus, which experts fear is more contagious, has prompted more than 50 countries to impose travel restrictions on the UK.
The first French case – found in a citizen living in Britain who arrived from London on December 19 – is asymptomatic and self-isolating at home in Tours in central France, the ministry said late Friday.
