New measures, new reports and highlights: the point of this Saturday, January 15 on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic in the world.
The situation in France
A lull seems to be taking shape in the critical care services which receive Covid patients, where hospitalizations are down slightly for the third day in a row, according to official figures released on Saturday evening. These services have 3,852 seriously ill with Covid, against 3,895 the day before, 3,939 on Thursday and 3,985 on Wednesday. On the other hand, this drop is not observed either in the total number of hospitalized patients (24,544, against 23,889 on Wednesday), or in the daily number of new cases of contamination identified. The latter stands at 324,580, against 303,669 the previous Saturday. However, the increase seems to be slowing down since the number of cases was 219,126 on Saturday January 1. On average, over the last seven days, there have been 297,000 daily cases against 279,000 the previous Saturday. This calculation helps to smooth out the deviations observed from one day to the next, often artificially created by data collection problems.
To read :Covid-19: passes jump and opponents march
It is too early to draw conclusions from the onset of decline observed in critical care but, if confirmed, it could be linked to the characteristics of the Omicron variant. It is more transmissible than its predecessor Delta and also seems to cause fewer serious forms of the disease (without knowing how much this is due to its characteristics or to the fact that the population is already partly immunized by vaccination or previous infections). For all these reasons, specialists consider it possible that Omicron saturates less resuscitation, since it causes less serious forms, while weighing heavily on hospital beds in general.
In the field of vaccination, 53.6 million people have received at least one injection (i.e. 79.5% of the total population) and 52.3 million now have a complete vaccination schedule (i.e. 77.5% of the population total). 31.6 million people received a booster dose.
The situation in the world
The pandemic has done at least 5,519,380 dead in the world since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources Friday in the middle of the day.
In ultimate value, United States are the most bereaved country with 849,991 dead, followed by Brasil (620 971), india (485 350) and Russia (319 911).
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, that the toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that officially recorded.
A case of Omicron detected in Beijing
A case of Omicron has been detected in Beijing, authorities in the Chinese capital announced on Saturday, where the Winter Olympics are to open on February 4, as the country battles several outbreaks of the highly contagious variant of the coronavirus.
This announcement comes after Zhuhai, a coastal city of 2.4 million inhabitants in the south-east of the country, near Macao, imposed travel restrictions, following the discovery of seven cases of contamination by the Omicron variant.
Millions of Chinese have been ordered to stay home in recent weeks, dozens of domestic flights have been canceled and entire factories closed as authorities seek to stem the outbreak ahead of the Olympics.
Boris Johnson and “Friday aperitifs” in Downing Street
Pots were organized every Friday in Downing Street during confinement, the newspaper The Mirror said on Saturday, lengthening the list of accusations against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is increasingly contested, including within his party.
The curator is accused of having participated in several festivities during confinements in the midst of a health crisis. The protest against him is rumbling, including in the ranks of the Conservatives.
Covax delivers “one billion” doses
The international mechanism Covax, intended to promote access to vaccines against Covid-19 in poor countries, reached a milestone on Saturday with “a first billion” of doses distributed, rejoiced Seth Berkley, executive director of Gavi, l Vaccine Alliance.
This alliance created Covax in 2020 with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Cepi coalition.
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