While more than 15,700 people have died worldwide in 24 hours from Covid-19, a record, experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday January 6 that there could still be six months of “
hard road to cover
” before vaccines bend the pandemic.
For its part, Europe is stepping up reconfinement measures and hastens to vaccinate its fragile population.
After that of Pfizer, it is around the Moderna vaccine to be authorized by the European Commission.
EU approves Moderna vaccine
The European Commission authorized Wednesday, January 6 the anti-coronavirus vaccine from the American laboratory Moderna, the second to be approved in the EU after Pfizer / BioNTech.
The vaccine had shortly before received the green light from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Authorized since December in the United States and Canada, the Moderna vaccine has the advantage of being able to be stored at -20 ° C, and not -70 ° C like that of Pfizer / BioNTech.
Read also: Moderna: the arrival of the second vaccine reduces the risks of a shortage in Europe
More than a million EU residents have received a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, with the Danes, Germans and Italians leading the way.
Read also: Covid-19 vaccination: where is France located?
England is reconfiguring itself
British MPs officially adopted on Wednesday January 6 the third confinement demanded by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to whom England had no other choice in the face of the outbreak of contaminations by the new coronavirus attributed to a more contagious variant.
The 56 million inhabitants can no longer leave their homes for essential reasons.
Schools have closed and Boris Johnson could not guarantee they would reopen after the February recess.
Read also: Reconfinement in the United Kingdom: the complicated situation of the French in London
The United Kingdom recorded an additional 1,041 deaths on Wednesday, with the daily death toll exceeding 1,000 for the first time since April.
The country has one of the heaviest tolls in Europe, with now more than 77,000 deaths and 2,836,801 cases of contamination, according to the Ministry of Health.
Closure of schools in Ireland
Ireland, faced with a "
tsunami
" of contamination with the new coronavirus, has also decided to close its schools at least until the end of the month, thus further tightening the confinement reinstated after Christmas.
Curfew in Quebec
Quebec imposes a night curfew on its inhabitants.
This measure, which lasts for four weeks until February 8, will apply from Saturday and will be in effect between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m.
The government, however, announced the lifting of the ban on flights from the United Kingdom, with the entry into force of new restrictions on Thursday for travelers arriving in Canada.
A rising balance sheet in China
While it boasted of a recovery in its economy despite the epidemic, China on Thursday reported 63 new Covid-19 contaminations in the past 24 hours - a record since July - as authorities strove to '' contain an outbreak of coronavirus that has appeared in the region bordering Beijing.
California hospitals overwhelmed
As the United States faces an unprecedented political crisis following the invasion of Capitol Hill by pro-Trump protesters, the country still faces an explosion of the coronavirus at the same time.
The most populous US state, California on Wednesday, January 6, ordered all hospitals in the state that are able to accept Covid-19 patients from overwhelmed hospitals, and postpone surgeries non-essential.
Over the past two months, the number of patients hospitalized because of Covid-19 has increased sevenfold in California, whose health system is at risk of being overwhelmed in the coming weeks.
