Covid, Mayor of London declares the hospital alert: “Virus out of control”. In Germany 1,188 deaths in 24 hours. Record of deaths also in the USA (4 thousand) and Brazil (1,841)

The coronavirus race does not stop. Cases of Sars Cov 2 globally today exceeded the 88 million mark, with an increase of three million infections in just four days. According to the data processed by Johns Hopkins University, the deaths caused by Covid are 1,898,530.

In UK, overwhelmed by the latest spike in infections, all international passengers arriving in England and Scotland, including citizens of the Kingdom, will soon have to undergo a test anti-Covid before departure and exhibit a negative result to enter the country, as announced by the Minister of Transport, Grant Shapps. The test will have to be done up to 72 hours before boarding, according to the Bbc. The new measure is expected to take effect early next week in England and “soon” in Scotland. Similar measures are also being studied for Wales and Northern Ireland. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has decided to proclaim thehospital alert in the capital, the British city most affected by the latest wave of Covid, due to the spread of hospitalizations linked to the new Covid variant. Khan evoked a “serious accident” situation, warning that “the spread of the virus” appears at the moment “out of control” in the metropolitan area. “I declared an emergency in London because the threat that this virus represents for our city has reached a critical level – he said – One in 30 Londoners now have Covid-19. If we don’t act immediately, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die ”.

And among the countries currently most affected by the new wave of the pandemic is the Germany. The Robert Koch Institut reports a new record of victims: in the last 24 hours they have been reported 1,188 deaths (so far the maximum number had been reached on December 30, with 1,129 deaths). There are 31,849 new infections. Experts reiterate that the data could also be explained by a delay in reporting, due to the holidays. January 5th was decided on extension of lockdown in the Federal Republic.

Same decision taken byHungary who decided to extend partial lockdown, introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus, until February 1. The measures – which include the curfew between 8 pm and 5 am, the ban on gatherings, the mandatory use of masks in public e online lessons for high schools and universities – were introduced as part of the national state of emergency in force since 11 November last. “The operational task force” created by the government “has decided to extend the restrictions currently in force until February 1”, said the premier Viktor Orban during an interview with the public media in Budapest. “As long as there are not enough vaccines, we will stick to the restrictions we have,” he added, specifying that primary schools and kindergartens can remain open.

Record of victims also in the United States. In the last 24 hours they have registered 4 thousand dead and new cases of contagion were 265 thousand. Among the most affected states is the California: two days ago by the Los Angeles County health authorities a directive has been launched which ordered not to transport patients with too low chances of survival to hospital.

The Brazil it exceeded 200,000 deaths on the day it recorded the highest number of victims since the beginning of the pandemic: 1,841. According to local health authorities, the number rises to 200,498. The day also marks the record of infections: 94.517, which bring the total number to 7.961.673. The South American country is the second in number of victims, behind the United States, and the third in number of infections after the USA and India.

Meanwhile, while in many countries of the world the vaccination campaign began immediately after the Christmas holidays, the immunization plan against the coronavirus in Australia it will start in mid-February, with the aim of vaccinating around 12.5 million people (half of the population) by June. Vaccinations will be free and it will be up to the states and territories of the federation to decide whether the vaccine should be mandatory for certain groups of people, such as health professionals. L’Australia plans to obtain approval of the Pfizer vaccine from the national authority (the Therapeutic Goods Administration) by the end of January. The vaccine should also be approved next month Oxford-AstraZeneca, of which the Australian pharmaceutical giant CSL (Commonwealth Serum Laboratories) has 50 million doses in production in its Melbourne laboratories.

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