School buses waiting in Brooklyn, New York, October 6, 2020 (AFP / Angela Weiss)
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Closure of schools in New York, return of confinement in Australia, increase in deaths in Europe: even if the arrival of vaccines is becoming clearer, the world continues to live under the threat of the coronavirus with the main weapon of often controversial restrictions.
In New York, the mayor confirmed on Wednesday the closure on Thursday of the city’s public schools after the test positivity rate reached the 3% threshold, from which he had pledged to take this measure, in particular with teachers’ unions.
“We must fight against the second wave”, justified Bill de Blasio.
But the measure, which is expected to come with other restrictions soon like closing gyms and restaurants, is controversial.
In schools themselves, the positivity rate does not exceed 0.19%. And many cite the European example, where many countries keep schools open for the well-being of children, despite re-containment of the rest of the population.
The city most bereaved by the first wave of the epidemic in the spring, New York has so far held up fairly well to the second: with 3% positivity, the metropolis and the whole of New York State are among the less affected in the United States.
Many states lament double-digit positivity rates, sometimes around 50% in the Midwest. And authorities fear another outbreak of the virus with the family reunion for Thanksgiving on November 26.
– No vaccine for the 2nd wave –
While waiting for future vaccines, which raise great hopes, the world continued on Wednesday to resort to the only methods currently effective against the pandemic: restricting social interactions (AFP / JOEL SAGET)
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The arrival of the first vaccines from the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna laboratories is becoming clearer, however: Pfizer said on Wednesday that full results of its large-scale clinical trials showed that its vaccine was 95% effective and that it would seek marketing authorization “within a few days” to the United States Drugs Agency (FDA).
The United States, Europe and other countries have already reserved hundreds of millions of doses. But vaccination will initially be reserved for hospital staff and the most vulnerable people, and the rest of the population will have to wait several more months.
The vaccines will not arrive in time to stop the second wave, and many countries “will continue to face it without vaccines,” Michael Ryan, head of emergency at the World Health Organization, warned on Wednesday ( WHO).
“I think it will take at least four to six months before there are sufficient levels of vaccination anywhere,” he said.
Illustration of syringes next to the logo of Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories, November 17, 2020 (AFP / JUSTIN TALLIS)
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The WHO, however, welcomed a drop in the number of new cases in Europe last week.
With 1.84 million new cases, the pressure remains high, but the organization points out that “last week, the region saw a 10% drop in the number of weekly cases”.
In Belgium in particular, health authorities announced on Wednesday that the containment measures imposed since the end of October were starting to bear fruit.
But the deaths continue to increase: more than 29,000 new deaths were recorded on the European continent during this period, 18% more than the previous week. And the pandemic threatens to overwhelm some health systems, especially in southern Italy.
In this context, and despite the economic devastation that threatens to worsen – about 12 million unemployed Americans will lose after Christmas the aid they were receiving, according to a study published Wednesday – the list of restrictions continues to grow.
People line up outside a supermarket on November 18, 2020 in Adelaide, Australia, ahead of a six-day lockdown in the state of South Australia (AFP / Brenton EDWARDS)
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Hungary has extended the state of emergency until February 8. The restrictions, which include a curfew between 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., a ban on gatherings and online classes for high schools and universities, were originally scheduled to end on December 11.
In Australia, the State of South Australia announced from midnight Wednesday a six-day confinement in the capital Adelaide. Schools, restaurants and factories must close and residents are required to stay at home.
“We strike hard and early. Time is running out and we must act quickly and firmly. We cannot wait to see how the situation will deteriorate,” said Prime Minister Steven Marshall.
– Dispute –
But the restrictions are often disputed: in Berlin, German police on Wednesday used water cannons and arrested nearly 200 people to disperse a gathering of 5,000 to 10,000 people. She had ordered them unsuccessfully to respect the sanitary instructions.
The pandemic has killed more than 1.339 million people worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease in late December, according to an AFP report on Wednesday.
More than 55.6 million cases have been diagnosed, of which at least 35.6 million are now considered cured.
The United States is the most affected country in terms of both deaths and cases, with more than 249,700 deaths for 11,441,946 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University count.
After the United States, the most affected countries are Brazil with 166,699 deaths and 5,911,758 cases, India with 130,993 deaths (8,912,907 cases) and Mexico with 99,026 deaths (1,011,153 cases).
burs-cat / others
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