The pandemic has killed at least 5.44 million people worldwide since December 2019, according to a report established by Agence France-Presse (AFP) from official sources, Tuesday, January 4. However, 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.
Hong Kong bans arrivals from eight countries
The Hong Kong government said on Wednesday it was banning all arrivals of travelers from eight countries in an attempt to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant. The countries concerned are France, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Australia and the Philippines.
Other measures announced: the ban on large-scale public events and the closure of fifteen types of businesses, including bars, nightclubs, sports halls and beauty salons. Dining inside restaurants will be prohibited after 6 p.m.
Hong Kong, like mainland China, practices a “zero Covid” strategy consisting of a long quarantine for anyone entering its territory and a draconian policy of isolating patients and contact cases. This strategy has enabled the megalopolis of 7.5 million inhabitants to record just over 12,000 cases and only 213 deaths since the start of the pandemic, but at the cost of costly international isolation for this. major global financial center.
These announcements come as contaminations with the new coronavirus are increasing across the world: nearly 890,000 cases in twenty-four hours in the United States, 270,000 in France, more than 200,000 in the United Kingdom … Israel announced on Wednesday have recorded nearly 12,000 new cases in twenty-four hours, a new peak in contamination since the start of the pandemic.
Beijing: a “health bubble” set up around the sites of the Winter Olympics
An anti-Covid “health bubble” was set up on Tuesday around the sites of the Beijing Olympic Games (February 4 to 20) to accommodate the 3,000 athletes and the staff responsible for organizing the event. The objective: to avoid any contact between people coming from abroad and the local population outside this area.
The “bubble” actually extends to all places through which foreign participants will pass, starting with Beijing airport, where two Japanese arrived on Tuesday. The two travelers were taken care of separately by employees in full protective suits who accompanied them to the Olympic Village.
All foreign participants must be vaccinated, the others being subject to a 21-day quarantine. When moving from one site to another, participants will remain separated from the local population, for example with reserved cars on the high-speed train leading to the ski slopes. Spectators (only people residing in China will be allowed) will not enter the “bubble”.
In China, a city detects 10 million inhabitants
The Chinese city of Zhengzhou (center) on Wednesday began screening its 10 million inhabitants after a few cases of Covid were detected.
China, where the pandemic was detected at the end of 2019, has largely eradicated the disease using very strict screening, tracing, containment and vaccination measures. However, these measures did not prevent the emergence of small outbreaks of Covid, which worried the authorities as the Winter Olympics approached.
Zhengzhou had reported in recent days two sick and nine asymptomatic cases. Local authorities have imposed confinement on eight living quarters, or several tens of thousands of people. The city’s caution is motivated by its proximity to the metropolis of Xi’an, in neighboring Shaanxi province, where a focus of infection on a scale unprecedented since 2020 has been declared in recent weeks.
Authorities forced Xi’an’s 13 million residents to stay at home. On Wednesday, the health ministry reported only 35 new patients in the city. “The upward trend in the spread of Covid is under control”said Ma Guanghui, deputy director of the provincial health commission.
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