pandemic update

Highlights, new measures, new reports: an update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.

– The bereaved Lebanon is reconfigured –

In Lebanon, which is facing record rates of contamination and hospitals overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients and the injured from the gigantic explosion of August 4 at the port of Beirut (at least 181 dead), a reconfinement decreed by the authorities has entered in effect Friday for more than two weeks.

It comes with a daily curfew from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. local time, but these measures do not apply to neighborhoods affected by the deadly explosion.

– Debt explosion in the United Kingdom –

The public debt of the United Kingdom exceeded the threshold of 2,000 billion pounds for the first time at the end of July, bearing the cost of the measures to help the economy deployed in recent months in the face of the pandemic.

According to the National Statistics Office, the debt stood at precisely £ 2.004 billion last month and represented more than 100% of gross domestic product (100.5%) for the first time since 1961.

– France: mask compulsory from middle school –

The French Minister of Education has ruled out a general postponement of the start of the school year due to the rebound in Covid-19 contaminations. He also announced that wearing a mask would be compulsory in class from middle school, even when the rules of physical distancing can be respected.

France has registered 4,771 new Covid-19s in the past 24 hours, an unprecedented increase since May. But the number of new infected patients admitted to French hospitals fell to 149, from 162 on Wednesday.

– No generalized re-containment in Ehpad –

Generalized confinement measures are not topical “neither in nursing homes (accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people, editor’s note) nor outside”, underlined Friday the French Minister of Health Olivier Véran, evoking one-off isolation measures “to save the life” of the elderly, particularly affected by the new coronavirus.

However, he said “not to regret” the very strict confinement of more than three months in retirement homes, very badly experienced by families and residents, which lasted until June 22.

– Ireland: a minister resigns –

The Irish Agriculture Minister resigned on Friday after revelations about his attendance at a dinner hosted by Parliament’s Golf Club with more than 80 people in violation of pandemic restrictions.

Dara Calleary, in office for only a month, attended the rally in a hotel on Wednesday along with many other political figures including EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan, according to the Irish Examiner newspaper. He claimed “an error in judgment”.

– More than 790,000 deaths –

The pandemic of the new coronavirus has killed at least 793,847 people around the world since the end of December, according to a report established by AFP from official sources on Friday at 11:00 GMT.

More than 22,734,900 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 196 countries and territories.

The United States is the most affected country in terms of both deaths and cases with 174,290 deaths for 5,575,386 cases, according to the count from Johns Hopkins University. Next come Brazil with 112,304 dead, Mexico with 59,106 dead, India with 54,849 dead and the United Kingdom with 41,403 dead.

Latin America and the Caribbean totaled 252,233 deaths on Friday, Europe 212,135.

burx-jba / cds / dga

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