The United States remains the most affected country, both in terms of death toll (over 140,000) and cases (over 3.8 million), while Brazil crosses the 80,000 death mark. In Europe, the countries of the European Union (EU) signed a 750 billion euros stimulus agreement on Tuesday morning.
Read also: The virus circulates slowly, but still circulates
- Relaunch: EU signs agreement
After 4 days of negotiations, European leaders reached an agreement at dawn on Tuesday on the 750 billion euro stimulus plan which should allow their economies to rebound in the face of the epidemic.
The result of intense negotiations, the final agreement lowers the share of subsidies in the recovery plan, a gesture in the direction of the so-called “frugal” countries - the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Austria joined by Finland.
The amount of these subsidies has been set at 390 billion, against the 500 billion initially planned and defended by Berlin and Paris in the name of European solidarity towards countries like Italy and Spain, the hardest hit by the virus. .
Read also: European recovery plan: the Twenty-Seven reach a historic agreement
- France: virus circulation increases
Since the start of the epidemic, 30,177 have died from the new coronavirus in France, the Directorate General of Health said in its press release on Monday, July 20. Since Friday, the Covid-19 has claimed 25 new victims among hospitalized patients. The balance of the number of patients in intensive care fell by 10 over the weekend. The DGS is however worried about the increase in the circulation of the virus on the territory, and evokes " an increase in the number of recourse to SOS doctors, visits to emergencies, the number of clusters and hospitalizations ".
Read also: Coronavirus: circulation of the virus is increasing in France, 207 active clusters
Nationally, the virus' effective reproduction rate (or "effective R", based on positive virologic tests) has risen slightly above 1 since the first week of July, and stands at around 1.20, according to Public health France. Each Covid-19 patient infects an average of 1.2 other people, which goes in the direction of a trend of increasing circulation of the virus.
According to official figures, the country has 207 grouped cases still active, including 9 new detected in the last 24 hours. “ SOS Médecins carried out 428 operations for suspected COVID-19, or 5% of the total activity. The emergency services noted 198 passages for the same reason, or 0.6% of the total activity , ”it said in the press release.
- Africa worries WHO
With more than 15,000 dead, the continent is the second least bereaved by this disease with Oceania. But for the World Health Organization (WHO), South Africa, which alone exceeded 5000 deaths on Sunday, " may be a precursor of what will happen in the rest of Africa ", Said an official of the UN agency Monday.
" I am very concerned that we are starting to see an acceleration of the disease in Africa and we all need to take this very seriously and show solidarity, " said WHO's head of health emergencies. , Michael Ryan.
- Record in Argentina and Brazil
The picture is also still grim in South America, especially in Brazil, the second most affected country in the world behind the United States, and where the milestone of 80,000 deaths from the coronavirus was crossed on Monday, July 20. The number of confirmed cases of contamination now stands at more than 2.1 million.
The real toll could however be much heavier according to the scientific community which points to an insufficient number of tests in this country whose president, Jair Bolsonaro, contracted the virus as several members of his government, and is in quarantine.
Argentina for its part recorded a record figure of 113 deaths in 24 hours, and health authorities in Bolivia report a " very rapid escalation " of the virus, especially in La Paz.
- Florida outbreak
The outbreak of infections is particularly important in the southern and western United States or Florida where Monday, July 20 only 18% of beds available in intensive care.
A sign that the situation is only getting worse in the country, Donald Trump has let it be known that he will resume his almost daily press conferences on the epidemic, an exercise to which he complied in April, when the death toll was at most high in the United States.
" I was doing them and we had a lot of people watching, record audiences in cable TV history, and it was second to none, " the former reality star said, adding that it was of a " very good way to inform people ".
The US president has also defended the wearing of a mask - a first since the start of the epidemic, evoking a " patriotic " gesture and appearing masked on a photo posted on his Twitter account.
- New restrictions in Spain
Spanish regional authorities have introduced new restrictions in an attempt to curb the rebound in Covid-19 cases.
After Catalonia (north-east), where the inhabitants of Barcelona and several other areas have been invited for a few days to stay at home, the region of Murcia (south-east) has decided to close nightclubs, night bars without terraces. as well as day centers for the elderly.
- Glimmer of hope for vaccines
Bringing a ray of hope, the results of two separate clinical trials - one British and one Chinese - were published Monday, July 20 in the British medical journal The Lancet .
The first, carried out by the University of Oxford in partnership with AstraZeneca, generated " a strong immune response " in a trial involving more than 1000 patients, while the second, supported by CanSino Biologics, caused a strong reaction in terms of of antibodies in another trial in most of the approximately 500 participants.
Neither project recorded serious adverse effects, but trials on a larger number of participants have yet to take place, before considering marketing.
Another British laboratory, Synairgen, presented the results on Monday of a drug dubbed SNG001 that would reduce the risk of developing a severe form of Covid-19 by 79% - but it has only been tested in a very small sample of patients (101).