France on Saturday broke its all-time COVID-19 record, tallying a startling 104,000 cases in a single day — while the UK surpassed 122,000 cases.
France racked up just over 94,000 cases in the previous record the previous day. More than 16,000 people are hospitalised in France with COVID-19, and 3,300 of those are in intensive care.
French President Emmanuel Macron planned to convene his Health Defense Council on Monday to plot new measures to keep the country safer. Full vaccinations, with boosters, will likely soon be required to enter any bar, restaurant and cultural venues, Bloomberg reported.
France, with a population of 65 million, is close in population to the UK’s 67 million. Spain, with a population of 47 million, tallied a record 50,000 cases earlier in the week, and Italy (60 million) tallied nearly 45,000 cases on Thursday. Several other European countries are overwhelmed by soaring cases and instituting new restrictions.
There were more than 700,000 cases worldwide on Friday — and close to 152,000 new cases on Christmas Day in the US
Florida hit a new all-time record of 32,850 COVID cases reported on Saturday, according to The Miami Herald. The previous record was reported the previous day.
As of Thursday, Florida tallied 3,864,288 cases since the pandemic began in March 2020, and 62,374 deaths.
“Omicron is 10 [times] more potent at causing reinfection than previous variants — protection from prior infection is not as good as protection from triple” vaccination, Dr Aileen Marty, an infectious-disease expert at Florida International University, told the Herald.
NEW RULES: New Covid restrictions have come into force in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as the nations try to halt the surge in infections.
All three nations have introduced curbs on the hospitality and leisure industry, resumed social distancing rules and put limits on the size of gatherings.
Boris Johnson has not announced any further restrictions in England.
But the prime minister said he would not hesitate to act if necessary.
Daily coronavirus figures are not being reported over Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but Friday saw a new high of 122,186 UK cases.
