An unprecedented health crisis
" This pandemic is a health crisis as we see only one per century, and its effects will be felt for decades to come ", warned the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to opening of a WHO meeting in Geneva.
For more than five months, the world has been living at the rate of the pandemic which has killed at least 673,909 people around the world, according to a report established on Friday, July 31 at 1:00 p.m., by AFP from official sources.
More than 17,352,910 people have been officially diagnosed in 196 countries and territories. The United States has the heaviest toll with 153,268 dead, followed by Brazil which deplores 92,475 victims, Mexico (46,688), the United Kingdom (45,999) and India (35,747).
Europe still in the throes of a second wave
Epicenter of the epidemic during the first wave, Europe fears a return of the virus with the summer. Faced with a rise in the number of cases, the British government is putting the deconfinement on hold and introducing new restrictions in some particularly affected areas of northern England.
Read also: In London, the Covid-19 pandemic brings the City to a halt
In Greece, an extension until the end of August of the confinement imposed on migrants in overcrowded camps has been decreed as cases of contamination increase in the country.
In France, several cities, including Biarritz, Bayonne, Saint-Malo, Orléans, Lille impose the wearing of the mask outside (in shopping streets, green spaces, in markets, on certain beaches, etc.). The French public health agency is worried. Indicators of epidemic resumption deteriorated further during the last week of July. “We are currently seeing an acceleration in the number of new cases, the number of new clusters identified, which in itself is a worrying signal. All this shows that the circulation of the virus is intensifying, ” explains Dr Sibylle Bernard-Stoecklin, epidemiologist at SpF, to Le Figaro.
Read also: Covid-19: the situation is deteriorating further in France
At the heart of the controversies at the start of the epidemic, the wearing of a mask is spreading in Europe. Denmark recommends wearing it on public transport. Cyprus requires it in closed public places.
Red Vigilance in Mexico and the United States
New national record of infections for Mexico which recorded 8,458 new cases on Friday July 31 in 24 hours. In this country where the government has preferred not to confine the population to preserve the economy, the peak of the epidemic still does not seem to be reached. 424,637 Mexicans have been officially infected with the coronavirus since March but these figures are largely underestimated according to local health authorities.
Since July, the capital of the country has set up a strategy of massive free screening to best assess the reality of the pandemic in the country.
Read also: Covid-19: why Mexico has become the third most bereaved country in the world
With a record number of contaminations and disorderly management between countries, Latin America is the second most bereaved region in the world with more than 100,000 victims. In Colombia, the number of deaths linked to Covid-19 exceeded 10,000 deaths on Friday July 31. According to the Ministry of Health, 295 deaths and 9,488 contaminations have been recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 10,105 and that of contaminations to 295,508.
Read also: Latin America overwhelmed by the Covid-19
The United States recorded 1,442 new deaths in 24 hours on Friday, according to the Johns-Hopkins University count. This is the fourth day in a row that the United States has more than 1,200 dead in one day.
Read also: In the United States, the hope of a strong recovery in activity is fading
Frantic race for a vaccine
The European Commission has reserved on behalf of the 27 member countries 300 million doses of the vaccine being prepared by the French laboratory Sanofi and is discussing in parallel with other manufacturers.
Sanofi and Britain's GSK will receive up to US $ 2.1 billion to deliver 100 million doses to Americans, while Japan has reached an agreement with the German-US alliance Biontech / Pfizer to ensure 120 million doses of a potential vaccine currently being tested.
Read also: Coronavirus: is France guaranteed to have access to the vaccine when it is ready?
On the medical front, a sign of intense competition between states, alliances are multiplying to ensure access to a future anti-Covid-19 vaccine and rivalries are arising.
Immunologist Anthony Fauci, voice of scientific reason in the United States on the pandemic, threw a pavement in the pond Friday by expressing doubts about the safety of vaccines currently being developed by Russia and China. " I really hope that the Chinese and the Russians test their vaccines before giving them to anyone, " he said during a hearing before the US Congress.
Read also: Covid-19: the slow mobilization of Europe on vaccines
Without sharing scientific data on the safety of its vaccine projects, Moscow announced this week that it hopes to start industrial production of two vaccines designed by researchers from state centers in the fall.
In China, a vaccine project is being designed in particular by a military research institute. The Chinese army authorized its use in its ranks at the end of June, even though the last phases of testing had not started.
Increased risk for caregivers
Caregivers were almost 3.5 times more likely to catch Covid-19 in April than the rest of the population, according to a study published Saturday August 1 in the British medical journal The Lancet.
Historic recessions in the euro area
France experienced in the spring the largest decline in its activity since at least 1949 because of the coronavirus, with a plunge in gross domestic product (GDP) of 13.8% in the second quarter.
Read also: "Economic storm"
Spain saw its GDP collapse by 18.5% in the second quarter, Portugal by 14.1% and Italy by 12.4%. As a whole, the euro zone recorded a historic decline of 12.1% of GDP during the same period.
For its part, the airline industry has denounced the “inconsistent” travel restrictions in the EU which “undermine consumer confidence”. "Some of these unilateral national measures are contrary to the advice of experts," lamented the airlines, notably within the International Air Transport Association (Iata), calling for more coordination.
Read also: Air traffic collapses, Airbus plunges into the red
With the holidays accompanied by high temperatures for Western Europe, the authorities have reminded those who flock to the beaches or abandon the mask of the persistence of the epidemic.