At least 39 people are killed and 100 others are injured after a
ferry catches fire in
Jhalakathi.
(BBC News)
Sixteen people are dead as a boat carrying migrants overturn and sink near the island of
Paros,
Greece. Sixty-three more people are rescued.
(Al Jazeera)
Greece cancels all public
Christmas and
New Year's Eve celebrations, as well as mandates
mask wearing outdoors and requiring people to wear two masks or a high-protection mask in order to use
public transport and enter supermarkets due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.
(The Independent)
Italy reports a record for the second consecutive day of 50,599 new cases of COVID-19, thereby bringing the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 5.57 million.
(Reuters)
Catalonia reimposes a curfew between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. in
municipalities where the infection rate surpasses 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, limits the number of people in social gatherings to 10, closes nightclubs, and restricts the capacity of the hospitality sector due to the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. These measures will be in effect until at least January 7.
(MedicalXpress)
The
South AfricanHealth Department suspends COVID-19 contact tracing and quarantine for people with asymptomatic cases due to 80% of the population being vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19.
(Bloomberg)