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 infected with Covid-19 is down, according to data recorded on Tuesday, and people in critical care with a diagnosis of Covid are also fewer, according to health authorities. The total number of cases of people who tested positive for Covid fell sharply over a week. There were thus 235,267 on Tuesday, against 416,896 a week earlier.
In addition, the average of cases over the last seven days, the most faithful witness of the real trend in recorded contaminations, also decreases, to 211,716. This downward trend has persisted since the end of January, which seems to confirm that the peak of contamination has passed. The average was 237,663 the day before and 322,256 seven days ago.
The positivity rate (over the seven days consolidated to D-3), which measures the proportion of positive results over that of the number of people tested, is almost stable at 33.1%. It was 34.2% last Tuesday. At the hospital, 3,555 Covid patients were in critical care on Tuesday, against 3,622 on Monday, and 3,751 the previous Tuesday.
The number of new admissions to these services is down and stands at 320 (compared to 454 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.
In total, there are 33,352 people in hospital who tested positive for coronavirus (including 3,060 who arrived in the past 24 hours), slightly less than Monday (33,447). However, it is more than last Tuesday (32,894).
In 24 hours, hospitals recorded 363 deaths. The death toll since the outbreak began just over two years ago totals 133,614.
The government began last week to lift restrictions weighing on the French, ending the wearing of masks outside, gauges in places receiving the seated public or compulsory teleworking.
Furthermore, regarding vaccination, 54,115,672 people received at least one injection (80.3% of the total population) and 52,952,135 are completely vaccinated (78.5% of the population). Since the start of the booster campaign, 36,909,308 people have received a booster dose.
– New Zealand: trucks around Parliament –
A convoy of trucks and motorhomes blocked the streets around New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington on Tuesday to protest against health measures and vaccination, a movement inspired by that which paralyzes Canada’s capital, Ottawa.
– Canada: Trudeau calls on truckers to lift their siege –
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has urged the hundreds of truckers who have been blocking downtown Ottawa for more than a week to denounce health measures against Covid to end their mobilization, after a call for help from the mayor of the Canadian capital.
“It has to stop”, hammered Mr. Trudeau, at the end of a week of isolation due to Covid, during an organized emergency debate in the House of Commons.
Tuesday in the streets of Ottawa, truckers, who have been banned since the day before from honking after a court decision, opted for a new tactic to make themselves heard: rev the engines of their trucks, making the air unbreathable, noted an AFP journalist.
– New super-fast test designed in China –
Chinese scientists have designed a new coronavirus screening method that is as reliable as a laboratory PCR test and gives a result in minutes, according to an article in a scientific journal.
– Pfizer’s results boosted by the Covid –
The American pharmaceutical group Pfizer plans to sell this year for 32 billion dollars of its vaccine against Covid-19 developed with BioNTech as well as for 22 billion dollars of the antiviral intended to treat this disease.
– The grotto of Lourdes reopens to pilgrims –
After two years of closure due to the health crisis, the cave of Lourdes (south-west of France) will reopen its doors to visitors on Friday, the sanctuary announced on Tuesday.
Again, pilgrims will be able to “pass through the hollow of the Rock of Massabielle, under the feet of the Virgin Mary, Immaculate Conception, touch the rock and approach the source”, we rejoice on the side of the sanctuary in a communicated.
– More than 5.7 million dead –
The pandemic has officially made more than 5,748,498 dead in the world since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Tuesday at 11:00 GMT.
In absolute value, the United States is the country with the most deaths (905,544), ahead of Brazil (632,621), India (504,062) and Russia (336,721).
Reported to the population, the countries where the epidemic has been the deadliest are Peru with 628 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, Bulgaria (486), Bosnia (451), Hungary (435) and Montenegro (416).
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.
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