Greece bans New Year’s music at venues amid COVID surge

Greece’s health minister says music will be banned at all commercial venues for New Year’s celebrations as part of new restrictions announced in response to a surge in COVID-19 infections fueled by the omicron variant. The restrictions were originally supposed to take effect on Jan. 3. But they will start early Thursday after the daily number of infections rocketed to nearly 22,000 Tuesday. That’s more than double the record number reported the previous day. Wednesday also saw a new record number of infections, with health authorities announcing 28,828 new coronavirus cases.