France registered 271,686 daily infections on Tuesday, the highest recorded tally, confirming France’s position as Europe’s worst-affected country, writes The Guardian.

French president Emmanuel Macron said his government’s vaccination strategy is to “piss off” people who have not had coronavirus jabs by continuing to make daily life more and more difficult for them.

Cases on Japan’s Okinawa more than doubled on Wednesday from the previous day, as officials consider imposing emergency steps to contain it.

China is doubling down on measures to prevent any new outbreak that could affect proceedings, the Associated Press reported.

People are being told to travel in and out of Beijing only if they absolutely need to and hotels have largely stopped taking new reservations. Athletes, officials and journalists are entering an “anti-pandemic” bubble as soon as they arrive and will remain within it until the Winter Games are over.

No fans from outside China are permitted and most of the spectators are expected to be drawn from schools, government offices and the military rather than the general public.