New measures, new assessments and highlights: the update on the latest developments of the Covid-19 pandemic in the world.
The situation in France
The number of people hospitalized with a Covid-19 diagnosis continued to fall on Wednesday, as did the number of patients hospitalized in critical care, according to figures released late Wednesday by health authorities. French hospitals currently have 32,878 Covid-19 patients (including 2,614 who arrived in the last 24 hours), down from 33,352 on Tuesday, according to Public Health France. However, this is more than last Wednesday (32,720).
The number of patients in critical care also declined to 3,503 on Wednesday, from 3,555 on Tuesday and 3,700 last Wednesday. The number of new admissions to these services is also down, to 296 from 320 on Tuesday and 366 a week ago. The government considered on Wednesday that there were “reasons to hope” that “at the end of March-beginning of April we can lift the vaccination pass”, due to the improvement of the health situation.
Now widely dominant, the Omicron variant causes less severe forms of Covid, which results in shorter hospital stays and a lower risk of resuscitation.
In 24 hours, hospitals recorded 255 deaths. Regarding vaccination, 54.1 million people have received at least one injection (80.3% of the total population) and almost 53 million are fully vaccinated (78.6% of the population). Since the recall campaign began, 37.1 million people have received a booster dose.
New York lifts indoor mask requirement
The State of New York lifts from Thursday the obligation to wear the mask indoors, especially in shops, restaurants, businesses, announced Wednesday the Democratic governor of the State Kathy Hochul, at a time when the number of Covid-19 contamination is in free fall in the United States. This obligation to wear the mask – which in fact expires on Thursday according to New York State law – will, on the other hand, remain in place in schools until March and it will be up to municipalities, including New York City, and businesses to impose it or not on their administrators and customers, Ms. Hochul said during a presentation to the press.
Even though the state and the megacity of New York were in 2020 the epicenter of the pandemic, with at least 38,000 deaths in two years in the city alone, Ms. Hochul welcomed health indicators all in “decline”. It’s a beautiful painting (…)We are not finished but the trend is very, very well oriented and that is why we are now considering a new phase of the pandemic,” the Democratic governor launched.
To read :Gabriel Attal evokes a possible end of the vaccination pass as early as “late March, early April”
The state of New York is therefore also dropping the mask indoors, following other states led by the Democratic party that have announced identical measures since Monday, such as California, New Jersey, or Connecticut.
Wearing a mask is a very strong political marker in the United States, where the obligation to cover one’s face is considered a violation of individual freedoms by a large part of the right and the Republican party. The latter is also well placed to check the pawn of the Democratic party of President Joe Biden during legislative elections in November that will renew part of the Congress in Washington. The wearing of the mask has never been imposed in large states led by Republican governors such as Florida or Texas.
Daily contaminations in the United States are in freefall with just under 250,000 cases a day on average over seven slippery days, according to health authorities. Far from the peak of 800,000 cases reached in mid-January. However, on February 4, the country crossed the 900,000 Covid-19 deaths mark in almost two years, according to Johns Hopkins University. The threshold of 800,000 deaths had been passed in mid-December.
The balance sheet in the world
The pandemic has officially killed more than 5,761,646 people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a toll compiled by AFP on Wednesday at 11:00 GMT, while the threshold of 400 million cases recorded should be crossed soon.
The United States is the country with the most deaths (912,077), ahead of Brazil (635,074), India (505,279) and Russia (337,390).
WHO estimates, taking into account the over-mortality directly and indirectly related to Covid-19, that the overall toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that established from official national figures.
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