The company Moderna announced Monday that its vaccine against Covid-19 remained effective against the British and South African variants, whose worrying spread across the world has led several countries to tighten the conditions of entry into their territory.
The pandemic has killed at least 2,129,368 and infected more than 99.1 million people worldwide since the end of 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Monday.
In the United States, the most affected country (at least 419,220 deaths for 25,127,573 recorded cases), the new president Joe Biden on Monday restored entry restrictions on the territory for foreigners having stayed in Great Britain, in Brazil and South Africa, where more contagious variants of the coronavirus have appeared, and for those coming from much of Europe.
California has relaxed some restrictions, however, which could in some cases allow the reopening of outdoor catering and hair salons, with a slight improvement in the situation in hospitals.
Having become for two months one of the main foci of the new coronavirus in the United States, with intensive care services and then overwhelmed morgues, the most populous state in the country had put in place on December 3 measures banning gatherings and non-essential activities.
Faced with concerns about the spread of variants, the American biotechnology company Moderna was reassuring, announcing that its vaccine remained effective against both, a reduction in protection against the South African variant having however been observed.
The laboratory therefore decided to launch, “as a precaution”, trials aimed at testing an additional dose developed specifically against the South African variant.
– The hope of colchicine –
For its part, the American laboratory Merck has announced the interruption of its work on two potential vaccines against Covid-19, including one developed in collaboration with the Institut Pasteur, a French foundation. Both organizations said their vaccine projects were not as effective as their competitors.
More than 63.5 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in at least 68 countries or territories, according to an AFP count.
In addition to vaccines, the track of treatments also seems to be progressing, the Greek Medicines Agency having given the green light on Monday for the prescription of colchicine to treat Covid after a Canadian study on the positive results of this anti-inflammatory.
The Montreal Heart Institute (ICM) announced on Friday that a large clinical study showed that this anti-inflammatory was effective in treating the disease and reducing the risk of complications.
In Europe, discontent is mounting over delays in vaccine delivery. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Monday called the CEO of AstraZeneca to demand that he honor his deliveries, the Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, for her part, deeming the delays in the delivery of the British laboratory and proposing a “transparency mechanism” on non-EU exports of vaccines produced on its territory.
Poland began to vaccinate the over 70s on Monday, while regretting the delay in delivery of Moderna vaccines. Like Italy, it threatened legal action last week if Pfizer, also late, did not keep its commitments.
For its part, Australia issued Monday its first authorization for a vaccine, that of Pfizer.
But the vaccine gap between rich and poor is widening, the WHO, which needs $ 26 billion to speed up access to Covid-19 control tools, said Monday.
“Vaccine nationalism could cost the global economy up to $ 9.2 trillion,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, citing a new study by the International Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to the progressive locking of the borders, the concern vis-a-vis the new variants leads to the hardening of sanitary measures.
In Austria, the FFP2 mask, more filtering, became mandatory Monday in public transport, shops, services and doctor’s offices.
And in the UK, also confined for the third time, the government is under pressure, including from its conservative camp, to provide a timetable for reopening schools, which have been closed since early January. Health Minister Matt Hancock declined to guarantee they would reopen before Easter.
“We risk an epidemic of educational poverty and mental health,” worried curator Robert Halfon, who chairs the education committee in the lower house of Parliament in the hardest-hit European country (nearly 98,000 dead).
– Containment and riots –
These endless constraints arouse the sometimes violent opposition of populations in several countries.
Several cities in the Netherlands were the scene of riots on Monday, for the second night in a row, after a curfew was imposed this weekend.
Clashes pitted riot police, who used water cannons, against groups of protesters in the port city of Rotterdam, as well as in the small town of Geleen (South), near Maastricht, the police reported. police and media.
Identical scenes took place Monday in Tripoli, the large city in northern Lebanon, where security forces had to contain young protesters opposed to health restrictions, the Lebanese Red Cross reporting more than 30 injured.
At the Czech-German border, long lines of cars formed on Monday and border workers had to patiently cope with the entry into force of stricter entry conditions in Germany because of the coronavirus.
At the Folmava-Fuerth im Wald border post, impatience mingled with anger as it took about two hours to cross this internal EU border, which we passed without stopping before the pandemic.
“It’s cold and snowing and there isn’t even a toilet,” Yveta Haladova, a Czech nurse working in Germany, told AFP.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday denounced violence linked to health restrictions in ultra-Orthodox towns and neighborhoods, and praised the “strong force” used by the police who arrested thirteen people.
burx-mba/sg/ial/fio/cls
PFIZER
ray
US7170811035
ASTRAZENECA
ray
GB0009895292
–
The company Moderna announced Monday that its vaccine against Covid-19 remains effective against the British and South African variants, whose worrying spread across the world has led several countries to tighten the conditions of entry into their territory. has killed at least 2,129,368 and infected more than 99.1 million people worldwide since the end of 2019, …
