The Covid-19 pandemic has killed nearly 3.5 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by Agence France-Presse (AFP) from official sources, Sunday, May 23.
This figure, which is based on the daily reports of the national health authorities, is globally underestimated. It excludes upward revisions carried out a posteriori by certain statistical organizations. By taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the real toll of the pandemic is “Two to three times higher”.
India, one of the most bereaved countries in the world
India has passed 300,000 deaths from Covid-19, becoming the third country in the world to reach this figure, behind the United States and Brazil, as the pandemic continues to rage in this vast country of 1, 3 billion inhabitants.
According to the Ministry of Health, the total number of deaths has risen to 303,720, including 50,000 in just under two weeks, and the cumulative number of contaminations has exceeded 26.7 million. In recent weeks, the country has regularly recorded an ever-increasing daily number of contaminations and deaths.
Many experts believe that the real figures are undoubtedly largely underestimated, especially as the epidemic has spread beyond the big cities, in the rural areas, where the hospitals are rare and where the registers are poorly kept. Across the vast nation, the devastating wave of Covid-19 has engulfed hospitals, resulting in a shortage of oxygen and essential medicines. Crematoriums and cemeteries were also overwhelmed.
European Union: the list of countries without entry restrictions
EU member states must establish by June 9 the list of extra-European countries whose nationals will be able to enter the European area freely, the French foreign minister said on Sunday. This category ” green “ will allow you to come to Europe “Without any difficulty, except for minimal health checks[aux] “, he said.
There is also a “Orange list”, which will identify the countries whose nationals must have received a “Recognized vaccine” by the EU, and a “Red list”, to the “Extremely firm constraints” due to the circulation of Covid-19 variants, added the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The latter list currently includes Brazil, Argentina and India.
First vaccinodromes in Japan, worries about the Olympics
Japan opened its first mass vaccination centers on Monday in order to accelerate its vaccination campaign, the slowness of which is widely criticized less than two months now from the Tokyo Olympics (July 23-August 8).
The two centers set up in Tokyo and Osaka (west), managed by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, will be responsible for administering thousands of doses of vaccines daily to people aged 65 and over. Just 2% of the approximately 125 million inhabitants of the Archipelago have so far received the two doses of vaccine, against 40% in the United States or 15% in France.
Critics are increasingly strong in the face of this slowness, explained in part by strict medical rules and red tape, while part of the country is in a state of emergency facing a fourth wave of Covid-19.
Some 10,000 doses must be administered daily at the Tokyo vaccinodrome, and 5,000 in Osaka, the two centers using the Moderna vaccine, authorized since Friday by the Japanese government. AstraZeneca, also approved on Friday, will not be used immediately, however, due to rare but serious cases of thrombosis (blood clots) observed in other countries.
Japan began administering Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine in February to its medical staff and then to people 65 and older, whom the government hopes to finish immunizing by the end of July.
The prospect of the Tokyo Olympics did not influence the vaccination program, however, said the Japanese government. Relatively spared from the pandemic, compared to other countries, with some 12,000 officially recorded deaths since the start of 2020, Japan is however experiencing an upsurge in Covid-19 cases, putting its medical system under pressure.
The population is strongly opposed to the holding of the Games, but the organizers keep repeating that very strict antivirus measures and the ban on spectators coming from abroad will make it possible to organize them. ” safely “.