Covid news live: South Korea to reimpose dining curfews; South Africa reports daily cases record | World news

Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you on the blog as we go through all the latest coronavirus developments.

Let’s start with the news that South Korea will clamp down on social gatherings, reducing the maximum private gathering size to four people, and cut the hours of some businesses to fight a record-breaking surge of Covid infections that has led to a spike in hospitalisations and deaths.

Curfews of 9pm on restaurant and cafe business hours will also be restored, prime minister Kim Boo-kyum said on Thursday. The new measures are set to be in effect from 18 December until 2 January, Yonhap News reports.

South Africa has reported its highest daily tally of new coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic with 26,976 infections and 54 deaths recorded on Wednesday.

The previous record of 26,485 on 3 July came at the height of the country’s third wave caused by the Delta variant. On that day, 108 Covid deaths were reported.

Here is a snapshot of the latest key developments:

• Covid cases in the UK reached record levels, with 78,610 new cases reported on Wednesday, as the Omicron variant continues its rapid spread.
• England’s chief medical officer warned people not to mix with others unless they have to in the run-up to Christmas after Britain recorded its most daily cases since the start of the pandemic.
• French President Emmanuel Macron said it was possible the Covid-19 vaccine would eventually be made compulsory in France, but said it was not the priority for now.
• A US appeals court revived the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in 26 states.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cut short his trip to Southeast Asia due to a Covid-19 case among his travelling party.
• Moderna will start a trial of its Covid-19 vaccine across eight African countries to determine its efficacy in people who are HIV positive, Bloomberg News reported.
• Early data suggests Omicron is more transmissible than Delta, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
• Canadians advised against all non-essential international travel.
• The Omicron variant has been found to multiply about 70 times quicker than the original and Delta versions of coronavirus in tissue samples taken from the bronchus, the main tubes from the windpipe to the lungs, a study found.
• Covid cases in the UK reached record levels, with 78,610 new cases reported on Wednesday, as the Omicron variant continues its rapid spread.
• Ukraine will extend Covid restrictions for another three months, to 31 March from the end of December, because of low levels of vaccination, the prime minister Denys Shmyhal said.
• Italy tightens restrictions for arrivals from the rest of the EU, requiring Covid tests of everyone and a five-day quarantine for those who are not vaccinated.
• The Crown Princess of Denmark tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday.