New measures, new reports and highlights: update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.
The situation in France
The pressure due to Covid-19 continues to fall in hospital services, particularly in intensive care, seeming to confirm that the ebb of the fifth wave is well underway, according to official figures on Saturday. French hospitals are currently welcoming 31,522 patients with Covid (including 1,329 who arrived in 24 hours), down from Friday (31,939) and last week (32,867).
The decline also continues in the critical care services which treat the most serious cases, in particular in intensive care, with 3,324 patients (including 156 daily admissions) against 3,371 the day before, and 3,606 a week ago. Now largely dominant, the Omicron variant causes less severe forms of Covid, which results in shorter hospital stays and a lower risk of going to intensive care.
On the contamination front, the decline continues, confirming that the fifth wave of the epidemic has begun to ebb. In 24 hours, 118,611 positive cases were recorded, against 131,376 on Friday. On average over the last seven days, this indicator stands at 145,619 against 256,329 the previous Saturday. Deaths remain at a high level, mainly among unvaccinated and immunocompromised: 161 people were killed by the disease in 24 hours, after 269 the day before.
In total, since the start of the epidemic a little less than two years ago, the Covid has killed 134,697 people. On the vaccination front, 54.1 million people have received at least one injection (80.3% of the total population) and 53.0 million are fully vaccinated (78.7% of the population). 37.7 million people received a booster dose.
Demonstration around the world
Some 10,000 demonstrators, according to the police, marched in the Australian capital Canberra on Saturday towards Parliament to denounce the obligation to vaccinate against Covid-19. Vaccination is not compulsory but required to enter the country and to work in a series of professions considered to be at risk, such as the care of the elderly.
Opponents of health restrictions who came to protest in convoys from all over the Netherlands left the city center of The Hague on Saturday after blocking it for several hours, according to the police. “Protesters who blocked The Hague city center today with trucks, among other things, have now left the city,” said local police, who had ordered participants to leave the scene before 3:30 p.m., threatening them of an arrest and a fine.
As for Canada, the establishment of the state of emergency did not discourage them: the anti-sanitary measures demonstrators were still thousands on Saturday in the streets of Ottawa and continued to block a strategic border bridge with the United States despite police intervention. For the first time since the start of the movement, the police took up position in large numbers near one of the hot spots of the dispute: the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor in Ontario to the American city of Detroit. The day before, the Superior Court of Ontario had ordered the departure of the demonstrators who had been there for five days.
In France, the police proceeded on Saturday in Paris to 97 arrests and 513 verbalizations of opponents of health measures participating in the operation called “freedom convoys”, according to an overall assessment communicated on Sunday by the police headquarters. from Paris.
The balance sheet in the world
The pandemic has officially made more than 5,799,910 dead worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Saturday at 11:00 GMT.
The United States are the country with the most deaths (919.171), in front of Brazil (638,048) and India (507,981).
The 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 established.
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