new Coronavirus More than 18,000 people have died worldwide in the past 24 hours, a record while new British and South African strains continue their uncontrollable expansion, helping a growing number of countries close their borders is.
On the front opened by the vaccine, the British laboratory AstraZeneca on Wednesday (27) was engulfed in a tense dispute with the European Union (EU).
Every day, the situation worsens: the number of infections in the world exceeds 100 million and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), new versions of the virus continue to spread on Wednesday. The British are already present in 70 countries and 31 in South African. In addition, there were 18,109 deaths on the planet on Tuesday, a record since the start of the Kovid-19 epidemic, according to a count on Wednesday. From the official balance sheet.
The numbers corroborate the trend seen since the beginning of the month: mortality rates are accelerating, records of daily deaths are being exceeded more rapidly, and the curve is accelerating with increasing numbers (on average, January 14 14 thousand deaths per day, against 10,000 at the end of November).
In total, Kovid-19 has already caused 2.16 million deaths worldwide. In the fight against the disease Maria Van Kerkhov, the WHO technical officer said, “We are fighting the battle of our lives, but we can win the virus and we will win it.” White House spokesman Jen Psaki said today that the organization’s investigation into China’s health status should be thorough and clear.
Governments under pressure
The situation worries governments across the planet. In the UK, the government has announced the introduction of hotel quarantines for UK residents who come from countries deemed at risk; A stay that everyone will have to pay from their pocket.
The measure will affect travelers from 22 countries such as South Africa, Portugal and South American countries. In fact, arrivals in British territory from places where virus variants “present a risk” are already restricted to all visitors from outside. Britain.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that these passengers would be taken directly from the airport to the hotel.
‘Non-essential travel’
Meanwhile, Finland, relatively unaffected by the epidemic, has announced that it will tighten its border restrictions, banning “non-essential” travel to its territory. Norway adopted a similar measure, closing its borders to almost all non-residents.
Argentina, for its part, forced airlines to reduce the frequency of flights to Europe and the United States, Brazil and Mexico, with the country reporting an increase in incidents of death and contagion.
Peru extended the state of emergency for 10 months until 28 February. The second wave of the epidemic forced the government to limit Lima and eight regions (16.4 million inhabitants, half the national population) as of Sunday.
The Pan American Health Organization considered Brazil, the country with the highest number of deaths after the United States, to be a concern.
In France, the government said on Wednesday that it was studying a variety of scenarios, including the advancement of the Kovid-19, as a new “very strict” quarantine, since the current curfew, began at 6 p.m. Starts at pm, does not seem effective. .
Even more strongly, Slovakia has decided to speed up its imprisonment, forcing civilians to undergo negative scrutiny before leaving home. After suspending international flights until the 31st, Israel closed the borders with Jordan and Egypt.
Tension with AstraZeneca
In the midst of a bleak scenario, all hope is diverted to a vaccination campaign, which, however, causes tensions between governments, populations and manufacturers. The European Union on Wednesday voiced its dispute with British laboratory AstraZeneca about delays in vaccine delivery, urging factories to share their production in the United Kingdom.
According to Pascal Soriot, president of AstraZeneca, the production of vaccines in British factories is reserved for the United Kingdom under an agreement with London three months before the contract was signed with the European Union, but Brussels rejected it.
The EU now claims that AstraZeneca supplies the Kovid-19 vaccine produced at two factories located in the UK, while the group plans to deliver only “a quarter” of the promised dose.
Chile on Wednesday approved the vaccine from the laboratory from which it is expected to receive 6 million doses, after authorizing the use of immunizers from Pfizer (USA) and Synovac (China).
AFP has applied at least 79.2 million doses of the Count-19 vaccine in at least 69 countries or territories as of 11 am GMT on Wednesday.
However, vaccination is a privilege for high-income countries (according to World Bank criteria), which had a 62% dose in the world, while only 16% of the world’s population lives there. “If in the developed world we come across a situation in which people with full health are vaccinated and frontline workers and vulnerable people (in poor countries) don’t do it, then it is not fair,” WHO, Michael of Emergency Operations Director said Ryan.
For magnets and philanthropist Bill Gates, the world must be prepared to face an epidemic as if it were a war, which should be turned into a billion-dollar investment a year.
