New measures, new reports and highlights: an update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.
The French vaccination campaign is launched
"
It doesn't hurt, you shouldn't be afraid
": the French vaccination campaign against Covid-19 was launched on Sunday in two hospital structures for the elderly in Sevran, then Dijon, where residents and caregivers received the first vaccine doses.
See also -
In Dijon, start of vaccination against Covid-19
France: new confinement not excluded
In France, a third confinement is not excluded if the epidemic situation "
were to worsen
", warned the Minister of Health Olivier Véran in the Journal du Dimanche.
The authorities fear the arrival of a third wave after the end of year holidays.
The situation is already worrying in the “
Grand Est, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (center-east) and the Alpes-Maritimes department (south-east), starting with Nice
”.
First vaccinations in the EU
The Italian Claudia Alivernini, the Romanian Mihaela Anghel, the Spaniard Araceli Rosario Hidalgo Sanchez, the French Jean-Jacques Monsuez and Mauricette ... These retirees, nurses, doctors, residents of retirement homes are among the first to be has the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine injected into the European Union, which officially launched its campaign on Sunday, December 27.
Three countries, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia, had anticipated the appeal on Saturday, December 26.
See also-
"
It is important
" that Europeans get vaccinated, says von der Leyen
Read also: Vaccine against Covid-19: reassuring safety data on adverse effects
AstraZeneca says it has "
the winning formula
"
The British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, whose vaccine developed with the University of Oxford could be approved in the coming days in the United Kingdom, claims to have found "
the winning formula
" to be as effective as its competitors Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Clinical trials had shown an average efficacy of 70% in November, against around 95% for the other two vaccines.
But one of the protocols, tested by mistake by the British laboratory on a small group of volunteers, showed an effectiveness of 90%, pushing the company to carry out an "
additional study
".
Read also: Covid-19: the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine submitted to the British regulator for approval
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is eagerly awaited because it is relatively inexpensive and easier to store, which facilitates large-scale vaccination.
Third confinement in Israel
Israel began its third containment of at least two weeks on Sunday, December 27 at 5:00 p.m. (3:00 p.m. GMT), a period that could be extended to one month if the number of daily contaminations remained above 1000. The number of infected people is recently started to rise again, with more than 3,000 new cases daily in recent days.
Israelis cannot move more than a kilometer from their homes and most businesses are closed except for deliveries.
However, it is possible to get out and get vaccinated in this country which has launched a blitz campaign to immunize a quarter of its population in a month.
Over 1 million cases in South Africa
South Africa became the first African country to exceed one million infections on Sunday evening, after the latest figures were announced by its Minister of Health.
In the midst of the second wave of the pandemic and while a more transmissible variant of the coronavirus is responsible for a large majority of new cases, the most affected country on the African continent has officially recorded 1,004,413 positive cases and 26,735 deaths.
Last week, South Africa recorded an average of 11,700 new infections per day, an increase of 39% from the previous week.
The worst is yet to come in the United States
The famous American immunologist Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that he feared that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States was still to come, following the end of the year holidays.
Read also: Covid-19: the United States passes the bar of 18 million cases
The world's leading power, which has the most deaths from Covid-19 in the world, has indeed experienced a spectacular rebound in the epidemic, with regularly more than 200,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,000 deaths per day, for nearly three weeks.
80 million contaminations
The pandemic has killed more than 1.75 million people worldwide since the end of December, out of more than 80 million confirmed contaminations, according to a report established by AFP on Sunday.
The United States is the country with the most deaths (333,069) and cases (19.11 million) since the start of the pandemic, ahead of Brazil (190,795 deaths for 7.47 million cases) and India (147,622 deaths for 10.19 million cases).
But in proportion to their population (respectively 100, 90 and 11 dead per 100,000 inhabitants), these three countries are less bereaved than Belgium (165), Italy (118), Peru (113), Spain (107 ) or the United Kingdom (104).
Delivery of vaccines to Lebanon in February
Lebanon is due to receive in February its first shipment of the American-German Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which would be sufficient to immunize "
15% of the population
", according to the Ministry of Health.
Shows in Switzerland: towards compulsory vaccination?
Swiss concert organizers said on Sunday that they were considering the possibility of making the Covid-19 vaccination compulsory for spectators, a measure that would allow festivals and performances to resume.
Curfew in Gibraltar
Faced with the surge in Covid-19 cases, Gibraltar, a British enclave in the far south of Spain, announced new restrictions on Sunday, including the closure of non-essential businesses and a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.