A nationwide quarantine in connection with the coronavirus pandemic will be introduced in Italy on holidays from December 24 to January 6. This decision was announced on Friday, December 18, by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Izvestia TV channel reports.

According to cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov, air escapes through the transition chamber. At the International Space Station in the service module "Zvezda", where the scientific equipment is located, they are looking for a new place of air leakage, RIA Novosti reports.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo decided to close the US Consulate General in Vladivostok and suspend the work of the Consulate General in Yekaterinburg, TASS reports, citing the press service of the State Department.

The ecological disaster in Kamchatka, which led to the mass death of marine animals in Avacha Bay, occurred due to the bloom of the flagellated algae Karenia. This was stated by Tatyana Orlova, deputy director of the Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center for Marine Biology, reports TASS.

At least eight people were killed by an oxygen machine explosion at a hospital in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday, December 19.

Chinese authorities are starting work on vaccination against the coronavirus among the population at risk, said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of China's state health committee.