#New lockdown omicron free

Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced the sudden shut-down on Saturday evening, ordering the closure of all but the most essential stores, as well as restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, museums and other public places from Sunday until at least January 14. Shopping streets in the Netherlands were closed and people’s Christmas plans were in disarray as the country began a lockdown aimed at limiting an expected COVID-19 surge. 10:51 GMT Netherlands starts ‘painful’ Christmas coronavirus lockdown People walk at a street a year after the peak of Italy’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Bergamo, the country’s epicentre, Italy “Some measures, such as making masks compulsory even outdoors … could be taken soon,” Franco Locatelli, one of the government’s main scientific advisors, told the newspaper.

#New lockdown omicron free

Under current rules, people who have been vaccinated or have recently recovered from the disease have free access to indoor seating at bars and restaurants, museums, cinemas, clubs and sporting events. Italy’s government is considering new measures to avoid a surge in COVID infections during the holiday period, local newspapers reported, amid worries over the spread of the Omicron variant.Īfter holding a meeting with ministers on December 23, Prime Minister Mario Draghi could impose an obligation on the vaccinated to show a negative test to access crowded places, including discos and stadiums, daily Corriere della Sera reported. 11:01 GMT Italy eyes new COVID-19 measures amid Omicron worries: reports Some European countries have brought Christmas holidays forward, and French conservative presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse has called for an extension of them in order to help ensure any infections caught over year-end holidays are discovered before children return to school. 11:38 GMT France not planning to extend Christmas holidays due to COVID: ministerįrench Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on BFM television that the government has no plans to extend the Christmas school holidays because of the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. The Kremlin on Tuesday said Russia had still not handed over all the information needed for the vaccine to be approved by the WHO because of differences in regulatory standards. The Kremlin is convinced that the World Health Organization (WHO) will recognise Russia’s flagship Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine within a few months, the Interfax news agency cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying.

12:00 GMT Kremlin convinced WHO will approve Sputnik V vaccine within months Many countries are reimposing travel restrictions and other measures weeks after the variant was first detected in South Africa. Germany’s health authority also announced that the United Kingdom had been added to its list of COVID high-risk countries, which will mean tighter travel restrictions. The announcement on Sunday comes as Europe tries to rein in the rising number of infections linked to the highly mutated strain. Iran has detected its first case of infection by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.