New measures, new reports and highlights: update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.
400,000 cases in France in 24 hours
Contaminations remain at a high level, with 400,851 people tested positive in 24 hours, even if they have marked a small drop in recent days. This indicator had reached a high on Tuesday (464,769), and on average over seven days, it stands at 347,403 cases. Currently, 28,457 Covid patients are received at the hospital, compared to 27,931 on Thursday, and 24,511 a week ago, specifies Public Health France. In 24 hours, 3,077 people were admitted to hospital. Critical care services, which treat the most serious cases, particularly in intensive care, are following the opposite trend, with a very slight reflux for several days. Some 3,792 patients are treated there, against 3,842 the day before, and 3,895 a week ago.
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These services have registered 329 new admissions in the past 24 hours. If it is much more contagious than its predecessors, the Omicron variant also gives fewer severe forms, which is reflected in particular by shorter passages in hospital and less frequent admissions to intensive care. Health authorities are also closely monitoring a sub-variant of Omicron which appeared a few weeks ago and which has settled in Denmark. This sub-variant has been detected in France “but at very low levels”, according to the health agency.
In 24 hours, 235 people died from Covid, bringing the total death toll to 128,347 since the start of the epidemic. Since the start of the vaccination campaign in France, 53,764,805 people have received at least one injection (i.e. 79.7% of the total population) and 52,437,130 people have had a complete vaccination schedule (77.8% of the population total).
Demonstrations in France against the vaccination pass
In France, opponents of the vaccine pass marched in the streets of several cities on Saturday, two days before its entry into force, demanding “freedom” and castigating “Apartheid” imposed according to them by the government between vaccinated and unvaccinated. From Monday, it will be necessary to be able to justify for those over 16 years of age a vaccination status to access leisure activities, restaurants and bars, fairs or interregional public transport. A negative test will no longer suffice, except to access health facilities and services
Omicron dominates in Europe
Omicron is now the dominant Covid-19 variant in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA), the European health agency announced on Friday. “The pattern of Omicron transmission in the EU/EEA has changed from community-based to dominant,” the Stockholm-based European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said. The EEA includes the 27 EU member countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
In addition, vaccines and booster doses against Covid-19 continued to have very high efficacy against severe cases of the disease during the wave caused by the Omicron variant, a large American study indicated on Friday.
During the period when the Delta variant was dominant, vaccine efficacy against Covid-19 hospitalizations was 90% between 14 and 179 days after the second dose of a vaccine. It fell to 81% more than 180 days after the second dose and rose to 94% 14 or more days after the third.
Once Omicron became dominant, the efficacy of the vaccine against hospitalizations between 14 and 179 days after the second dose was estimated at 81%; it was 57% after more than 180 days after the second dose, and 90% 14 days or more after the third.
Until then spared, the islands of Samoa and Kiribati confined
The Pacific islands Kiribati and Samoa, so far spared from the Covid-19 epidemic, have been confined since Saturday after the appearance of cases imported by travelers arriving from abroad. Since the start of the pandemic and until this month, the Kiribati archipelago had recorded no cases of coronavirus and Samoa only two, according to the WHO.
The balance sheet in the world
The Covid-19 pandemic has made at least 5,583,378 dead in the world since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. GMT.
In absolute terms, the countries that have recorded the most deaths are United States (864.564), Brasil (622.563), india (488.884) and Russia (325.433).
The World Health Organization 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 recorded.
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