Merry Christmas in Coronavirus

 Clockwise : Women in Pakistan chanting in a church . Iranian women buying Christmas gift, Australian girls having selfie on Christmas day . Christmas in France amid coronavirus .

The effects of the pandemic are being felt worldwide this holiday season. In Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, a stream of marching bands joyously paraded through the streets -- but few people were there to greet them as a strict lockdown dampened Christmas Eve celebrations.

Churches across South Korea stood largely empty, with worshippers congregating online as the country reported a new daily caseload record. 

The battle to halt the pandemic, which has claimed more than 1.7 million lives, is far from over despite the launching of mass vaccine campaigns that offer the promise of an eventual return to normalcy.

In Australia, worshippers had to book tickets online to attend socially distanced church services ..

Pope Francis was set to celebrate Mass in a near-empty Vatican service early in the evening as strict new curfew rules were going into effect.

Celebrations elsewhere in Europe were canceled or greatly scaled back as virus infections surge across the continent and a new variant that may be more contagious has been detected. Thousands of truck drivers and travelers were trapped in mass gridlock at Britain's Dover port on Christmas Eve, held up from crossing to France by the slow delivery of coronavirus tests demanded by French authorities.

In Bethlehem, officials tried to make the most out of a bad situation.