New measures, new reports and highlights: update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.
The situation in France
Hospital pressure due to Covid-19 continues to decline slowly, including in critical care wards, but it still remains strong and the number of deaths still high, according to official figures released on Friday. French hospitals are currently welcoming 31,939 patients with Covid (including 2,377 who arrived in 24 hours), down from Thursday (32,415) and last week. The decline also continues timidly in the critical care services which treat the most serious cases, in particular in intensive care, with 3,371 patients (including 245 daily admissions) against 3,416 the day before, and 3,618 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. But deaths, up sharply since November, remain at a high level, mainly among unvaccinated and immunocompromised: 269 people were killed by the disease in 24 hours, and 310 the day before. “Over the past seven days, the epidemic has killed 2,000 people,” Prime Minister Jean Castex noted on Friday. In total, since the start of the epidemic a little less than two years ago, the Covid has killed 134,536 people. On the contamination front, the decline continues, confirming that the fifth wave of the epidemic has begun to ebb. In 24 hours, 131,376 positive cases were recorded, against 153,025 on Thursday. On average over the last seven days, this indicator stands at 159.323 against 273.180 the previous Friday. 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.
The United States authorizes a new treatment
The American health authorities announced on Friday to urgently authorize a new treatment against Covid-19, the bebtelovimab monoclonal antibodies, which remain effective against the Omicron variant.
This treatment remains active including against the sub-variant of Omicron BA.2, specified the American Medicines Agency (FDA).
Produced by the pharmaceutical group Eli Lilly, it can be administered to people at high risk of developing a severe case of the disease, from the age of 12. In clinical trials, side effects could include itching, nausea, or vomiting.
In mid-January, the FDA had revoked the emergency authorization of two treatments, monoclonal antibodies from Regeneron (casirivimab and imdevimab) and others from Eli Lilly (bamlanivimab and etesevimab), because they had proved ineffective. against Omicron.
Monoclonal antibodies are synthetic proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight the virus, in order to support it. Usually injected intravenously, they work by attaching themselves to the spike protein on the surface of the virus, which is its entry key into the body.
The balance sheet in the world
The pandemic has officially killed more than 5.78 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Friday midday.
The United States is the country with the most deaths (918,110), ahead of Brazil (637,152) and India (507,177).
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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