The COVID-19 epidemic is accelerating, with now a total of 20,000 dead in Belgium and 40,000 in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel, warning that the worst is yet to come while waiting for the vaccinations to take effect.
Since Beijing announced just a year ago, on January 11, 2020, of the first death linked to COVID-19, a man who had shopped in a Wuhan market, the virus has killed more than 1, 9 million people on the planet, which he further plunged into an unprecedented economic crisis. A year later, the spread of new, more contagious variants led to a further increase in the number of patients and a risk of asphyxiation in hospitals, as in the United Kingdom, which has exceeded the threshold of 80,000 deaths, and in Germany, as well as new restrictive measures, from Quebec to Sweden.
The coming weeks will be “the hardest phase of the pandemic” with medical staff working to the maximum of their abilities, Angela Merkel warned. More than 80% of the beds in intensive care units in his country were occupied. Especially since, stressed the Chancellor, the full effect of the intensification of social contacts during the Christmas and New Year periods is not yet visible in the statistics.
If the virus continues on this trajectory, hospitals will be in real difficulty, and that very soon
Belgium passed 20,000 dead on Sunday, half living in retirement homes. With a rate of 1,725 deaths per million inhabitants, this country ranks first in the world for mortality reported to the population.
In the United Kingdom, the health system is “currently facing the most dangerous situation we can remember,” warned Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England. “If the virus continues on this trajectory, hospitals will be in real difficulty, and that very soon. “
While waiting for the acceleration of vaccination campaigns, the slowness of which is criticized, governments, as in France and Sweden, are toughening measures to reduce contacts, at the risk of aggravating the economic gloom.
Tighten the measures
In France, eight new departments are advancing their curfew to 6 p.m., to the chagrin of food businesses, joining fifteen departments which had done so last weekend. In the rest of the country – which has a total of around 100 departments – it is set at 8 p.m. In Monaco, it will be brought forward to Monday at 7 p.m. Forty cases of contamination by the British variant have so far been detected in France. In Marseille (south-east), the situation is considered “worrying”. Russian health authorities announced on Sunday that they had discovered a first case of this variant in a person returning from the United Kingdom.
The acceleration of the epidemic has forced Sweden to break with its policy until then less strict than elsewhere. Since Sunday, it can toughen measures, including for the first time to close shops and restaurants in targeted areas. But these devices are also causing revolts: in Denmark, where cases linked to the British mutant strain are increasing, demonstrations against the restrictions degenerated into clashes on Saturday and nine people were arrested.
Leading by example, Queen Elizabeth II, 94, and her husband Prince Philip, 99, received their first injection of the novel coronavirus vaccine on Saturday in Windsor Castle, west London, where they are confined. The government aims to have all adults in the UK vaccinated by autumn and has already taken the lead with 1.5 million people having already received their first injection.
To help “vulnerable countries” also access vaccines, the government announced on Sunday that it had collected $ 1 billion from its allies.
Watch video
–
