NPR

Why The World Is Seeing Some Of Its Most Extreme Pandemic Lockdowns

Even as the European Union began vaccine rollouts on Sunday, nations around the globe are instituting severe lockdowns and travel restrictions. Fear of the U.K. variant is a key reason.
A worker wearing personal protective equipment disinfects the Holy Redeemer Church in Bangkok after a Christmas Eve mass. Thailand is one of many countries now seeing a surge in cases.

The last Sunday of 2020 was ushered in with both promise and apprehension on the global pandemic front.

The European Union began immunizing residents with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. "We are starting to turn the page on a difficult year," said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in a video posted on Twitter. The E.U. she added has "secured enough doses for our whole population of 450 million people."

At the same time, some of the

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