New measures, new reports and highlights: update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.
The situation in France
The number of people hospitalized with a diagnosis of Covid-19 continued to fall on Wednesday, as did the number of patients hospitalized in critical care, according to figures released Wednesday evening by health authorities. French hospitals currently have 32,878 patients with Covid-19 (including 2,614 who arrived in the past 24 hours), down from 33,352 on Tuesday, according to Public Health France. It is however more than last Wednesday (32.720).
The number of critical care patients also fell to 3,503 on Wednesday, from 3,555 on Tuesday and 3,700 last Wednesday. The number of new admissions to these services is also down, to 296 against 320 on Tuesday and 366 a week ago. The government estimated on Wednesday that there were “reasons to hope” that “at the end of March-beginning of April we can lift the vaccination pass”, due to the improvement in the health situation.
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.
In 24 hours, hospitals recorded 255 deaths. Regarding vaccination, 54.1 million people have received at least one injection (80.3% of the total population) and nearly 53 million are fully vaccinated (78.6% of the population). Since the start of the booster campaign, 37.1 million people have received a booster dose.
New York lifts indoor mask requirement
The State of New York lifts the obligation to wear a mask indoors as of Thursday, in particular in shops, restaurants, businesses, announced on Wednesday the Democratic governor of the state Kathy Hochul, at a time when the number of contaminations to Covid-19 is in free fall in the United States. This obligation to wear a mask – which in fact expires Thursday according to New York State legislation – will however remain in place in schools until March and it will return to municipalities, including the city of New York, and businesses to impose it or not on their constituents and customers, said Ms. Hochul during a presentation to the press.
Even though the state and the megalopolis of New York were the epicenter of the pandemic in 2020, with at least 38,000 deaths in two years in the city alone, Ms. Hochul welcomed health indicators all “down “. It’s a magnificent picture (…) We are not finished but the trend is very, very well oriented and this is the reason why we are now considering a new phase of the pandemic”, launched the governor. democrat.
To read :Gabriel Attal evokes a possible end of the vaccine pass from “end of March, beginning of April”
New York State is therefore also dropping the mask indoors, following other states led by the Democratic Party which have announced identical measures since Monday, such as California, New Jersey, or even Connecticut.
Wearing a mask is a very strong political marker in the United States, where the obligation to cover the face is considered a violation of individual freedoms by a large part of the right and the Republican Party. The latter is also well placed to outdo the pawn of President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party during legislative elections in November which will renew part of Congress in Washington. Wearing a mask has never been imposed in large states led by Republican governors such as Florida or Texas.
Daily contaminations in the United States are in free fall with just under 250,000 cases per day on average over seven rolling days, according to health authorities. Far from the peak of 800,000 cases reached in mid-January. However, on February 4, the country crossed the bar of 900,000 deaths from Covid-19 in almost two years, according to Johns Hopkins University. The threshold of 800,000 deaths had been passed in mid-December.
The balance sheet in the world
The pandemic has officially killed more than 5,761,646 people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Wednesday at 11:00 GMT, while the threshold of 400 million recorded cases should be crossed soon.
The United States is the country with the most deaths (912,077), ahead of Brazil (635,074), India (505,279) and Russia (337,390).
The WHO estimates, taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, that the overall assessment of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that established from official national figures.
Any reproduction prohibited