Summary:
- France allows truckers from UK with negative COVID test
- US 7-day deaths average hits new record
- EU calls on members to continue freight trade with UK
- Public health official warns "only matter of time" before mutation arrives in Germany
- Hungary sees lowest tally of new cases in 2 months
- Ireland expect to impose holiday lockdown
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Boris Johnson managed to keep his promise to the British people, and on Tuesday morning, the French lifted restrictions on British travelers and truckers - with one important catch: to cross into France, truckers and travelers must provide a recent negative test for COVID-19 taken during the last three days.
The US, meanwhile, is reportedly considering whether to impose travel restrictions, though we suspect these leaked reports are merely a response to Gov. Cuomo's demands that all British travelers arriving at JFK be tested for COVID.
In other news during what many are hoping will be a quiet, holiday-shortened week in the US, we have some major news out of Taiwan, which has just recorded its first case of COVID-19 in more than eight months, ending the world's longest-stretch without a domestic infection. Late last month, Vietnam snapped a nearly 3-month streak. Both countries have been models for the international community, as other countries in the region - including Thailand, South Korea and Australia - have been unable to keep a lid on outbreaks.
As the world continues to worry about the mutated virus purportedly discovered in southern England and a few other areas around the globe, the EU has called on all its member states to...