New measures, new reports and highlights: update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.
The situation in France
French hospitals continue to receive more and more people hospitalized with Covid-19, but critical care services are following the opposite trend, daily figures from health authorities show on Wednesday. Currently, according to the French public health agency, 27,230 people are hospitalized with a positive Covid diagnosis, a figure which has been rising steadily since the start of the year as contaminations soar against the backdrop of an explosion of the Omicron variant.
In the past 24 hours, 436,167 people tested positive, against 464,769 the day before. This brings the average over the past seven days to 320,069 daily cases against 287,603 the previous Tuesday. This calculation helps to smooth out the deviations observed from one day to the next, often artificially created by data collection problems. Over the past 24 hours, 3,187 people have been admitted to hospital. The latter figure is higher than a week earlier, a sign that the pressure shows no signs of easing for the hospital as a whole. On the other hand, the situation is easing for the critical care services, which house the most serious cases. They currently welcome 3,852 people, a figure that has been declining for several days.
In the past 24 hours, these services have recorded 330 admissions. As for several days, this figure is down from a week earlier. The Omicron variant is much more contagious than its predecessors but it also gives less severe forms, which translates in particular into shorter hospital stays and less frequent admissions to intensive care.
No immediate lifting of restrictions, but the government wants to “give visibility”. A Health Defense Council meeting Thursday morning at the Elysée must “give visibility” as to the restrictions linked to the health crisis, even if the epidemiological situation must maintain the status quo for at least two weeks, we learned. from government sources. The executive is faced with a paradoxical situation: if the number of positive cases continues to increase – and to break records at more than 300,000 daily contaminations on the average of the last seven days -, the pressure on the hospital and in particular the services resuscitation tends to stagnate.
Among the options of the council chaired by Emmanuel Macron, an intermediate solution is at this stage preferred. It consists of giving a timetable for lifting the restrictions, in particular with regard to gauges, the ban at least until January 24 on standing concerts and the closing of nightclubs. “We should ask the French for another two weeks of effort before lifting restrictions,” a source close to the executive told AFP. “We want to give a little visibility, especially since people are fed up. We will say that if the conditions improve, in one or two weeks we will lift restrictions”, adds another source. The Defense Council must also decide on a postponement in June of the baccalaureate specialty tests, a scenario that would hold the rope, according to several sources within the executive.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, already announced to the social partners that the government was considering extending “for another two weeks” the rule providing for a minimum of three days of teleworking per week.
The situation in the world
United States: Omicron less devastating on the economy. The Omicron variant weighs on US economic growth for months to come, but will not derail it, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the country’s mayors gathered in the federal capital Washington. The number of new cases of Covid-19 was down on Wednesday in the United States, suggesting that the peak of the wave linked to the Omicron variant should now have been crossed in the country.
Tax the richest to vaccinate the planet. Several international organizations, including the NGO Oxfam and a collective of philanthropic millionaires, propose the imposition of a tax on the richest people on the planet that would lift billions more out of poverty and vaccinate the planet. against Covid-19.
John Malkovich deprived of a palace in Venice. American actor John Malkovich, whose vaccination pass had expired, was refused access to the suite he had reserved in a Venetian palace, Italian media reported on Wednesday. The 68-year-old ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ star had to settle for an apartment.
To read : Soon the end of most of the anti-Covid restrictions in England
The balance sheet in the world
The Covid-19 pandemic has killed at least 5,553,124 people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report compiled by AFP from official sources on Wednesday at 11:00 GMT.
In absolute terms, the countries with the most deaths are the United States (854,074), Brazil (621,517), India (487,202) and Russia (323,376).
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 than that officially recorded.
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