DIRECT. Covid-19: a highly anticipated Defense Council this Wednesday against the 5th wave

The essential

• A Defense Council is held in the morning.

  New measures against the pandemic are expected at its end.

• The number of contaminations in one day exceeds 30,000 for the first time since August.

• In France, the latest assessment in 24 hours shows 8,525 people hospitalized because of Covid-19;

  they were a thousand fewer a week ago.

  1,455 of these people are in critical care compared to 1,277 seven days earlier.

  84 people have died from the disease for a total of 118,600 since early 2020.

• Globally, at least more than 5.1 million people have died from the pandemic.

  More than 7.4 billion doses of vaccine have been injected.

> The events of the day:

7 hours. No foreigners in New Zealand before the end of April.

New Zealand announces that its borders will remain closed to foreign travelers until the end of April. This decision comes at a time when the archipelago is gradually relaxing the measures for international arrivals, so far among the strictest in the world. The Minister in charge of the fight against Covid-19, Chris Hipkins, indicated that New Zealanders stranded in Australia could return from mid-January, those from the rest of the world having to wait until February. For their part, foreigners will be able to visit the archipelago from the end of April, according to the gradual reopening plan.

6:45 am.

Closure of an Audi factory in Belgium.

The Audi factory in Brussels, the Belgian capital, one of the largest automobile manufacturing sites in the country, has decided to suspend production for the whole week due to the multiplication of cases among workers.

According to local media, the precautionary measure, which initially only concerned the morning shift, was extended to all of the 2,000 workshop workers after a discussion with the unions.

6.30 a.m.

The United States gives 4 million doses to Vietnam.

The White House, the seat of the US presidency, on Tuesday announced the shipment of 4.1 million additional doses of vaccine to Vietnam.

This delivery brings the number of doses offered worldwide by the United States to almost 270 million.

6:20 am.

Minister Brigitte Klinkert tested positive.

After the positive test of the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, another member of the government is also a carrier of the disease.

This is Brigitte Klinkert, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Labor in charge of Integration.

More information in this article.

6:10 am.

What the Defense Council has in store.

At the end of the Defense Council scheduled for the morning, new measures to curb the disease are expected.

Among these, the government could decide to generalize the booster dose of the vaccine, extend the wearing of masks, expand teleworking, restore gauges and strengthen controls.

More details in this article.

6 hours.

Welcome to this live dedicated to the Covid-19 pandemic.