Paris on Saturday said it was cancelling its traditional New Year fireworks as Europe braced for tighter curbs to rein in the spread of the new variant.
Paris municipal authorities announced "with regret that we will have to cancel all the festivities planned on the Champs Elysees on December 31"PARIS - Paris on Saturday said it was cancelling its traditional New Year fireworks as Europe braced for tighter curbs to rein in the spread of the new strain of the coronavirus fuelling a resurgence in COVID-19 cases worldwide.EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has warned the Omicron coronavirus variant could be dominant in Europe by mid-January.
And Paris municipal authorities announced"with regret that we will have to cancel all the festivities planned on the Champs Elysees on 31 December."The fireworks will not take place, nor unfortunately will there be any DJ sets," the mayor's office told AFP. Denmark, which this week had the highest per capita new COVID infection rate, said it would close cinemas, theatres and concert halls and restrict restaurant opening hours.And Switzerland is also stepping up anti-COVID measures from Monday as the country battles an intense fifth wave of the virus, which has killed at least 5,335,968 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.
In Portugal, where 88.9 percent of the population is vaccinated, more than 60,000 children aged between five and 11 were set to receive their first jab of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine this weekend. Nevertheless, the EU health agency ECDC has said measures like mask-wearing, distance working and the prevention of crowds were essential to reduce the burden on healthcare systems in the time available, with vaccines alone taking too long.
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