The pandemic has killed more than 3.9 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by Agence France-Presse (AFP) from official sources on Saturday, June 26 in the middle of the day.
The United States is the most affected country both in terms of death toll (603,500) and number of cases. Brazil, which has more than 511,100 dead, is followed by India (394,400), Mexico (232,300) and Peru (191,400), the country which deplores the most deaths in relation to its population. These figures, which are based on daily reports from national health authorities, are generally underestimated. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that officially calculated.
The Delta variant worries
Identified for the first time in India in April, the Delta variant is now present in at least 85 countries, according to the WHO, raising fears, despite vaccination campaigns, of new waves of the pandemic which has already made nearly 4 million dead.
In South Africa, this variant is at the origin of the significant rise in contamination, scientists announced on Saturday, while the government is considering new restrictions. The most affected country on the continent, South Africa recorded 18,762 new contaminations on Saturday, a record for the year 2021.
In Russia, hit hard by the Delta variant, Saint Petersburg, the host city of the Euro with 5.4 million inhabitants, officially recorded 107 deaths on Saturday in twenty-four hours. This is the highest number of daily deaths from Covid-19 seen in any Russian city since the start of the pandemic, according to Russian news agencies. The country as a whole recorded more than 21,600 new contaminations on Saturday, a threshold not reached since January. Contamination is up 25% over the last seven days compared to the previous seven days and the official death toll has increased by 33%.
Relaxation of restrictions in several European countries
In Europe, however, the time has yet to ease restrictions in several countries. In Spain, the mask is no longer compulsory outside since Saturday. In Madrid, however, most people still kept it. “I know I am protected, but we can still be contagious, so any safety measure is good”, told AFP Eduardo Marin Valdez, a 59-year-old teacher vaccinated. Switzerland also decided to lift a large part of the restrictions still in place this Saturday, in particular the wearing of masks outside. In Italy, it is Monday that the masks can fall outside.
Very different situation in the United Kingdom, where thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday in central London to denounce the restrictions in the face of Covid-19, after the postponement to July of the lifting of the last of them due to the increase the number of contaminations. It is in this context that the British Minister of Health Matt Hancock, a key figure in government action against the pandemic, announced his resignation on Saturday for having violated the rules put in place in the face of Covid-19 in the context of of an affair with a counselor, revealed by a tabloid.
In Haiti, pharmacists fear counterfeit vaccines
The Haitian Pharmacists Association warned on Saturday about the risks of introducing counterfeit vaccines, after the state on Thursday authorized the importation by the private sector of vaccines against Covid-19, while it did not has not yet launched any public campaign to immunize the population. “There is a high risk of fake anti-Covid-19 vaccines being introduced into Haiti due to possible multiplication of uncontrolled points of sale, worries about the professional organization. Haiti does not have a quality control laboratory that can verify whether a vaccine is fake or not. “
Haitian importers of pharmaceutical products and doctors who wish to do so must transmit to the Ministry of Health the quantities, batch numbers and country of origin of the doses, no restriction as to the type of vaccines having been issued by the government of this country. Caribbean. Haiti is one of the few nations that has not yet started its vaccination campaign. Health ministry says it should receive 130,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine “Between the beginning and the friend-July”, as part of the Covax program overseen by the WHO.