While the epidemic has already killed 1.69 million people worldwide since its appearance, the world is worried about a more virulent third wave with the discovery of a new strain of Covid-19 in London and in the southern England, 70% more contagious, according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
While authorizing the first vaccinations in the days to come, with the product of the Pfizer / BioNTech laboratory, the European countries have cut the links with the country across the Channel to protect the end-of-year celebrations.
UK cut off from the world
Affected by a more contagious strain of the new coronavirus, the United Kingdom finds itself brutally cut off from the world after the decision of many countries to suspend their links, at the risk of a chaos in its supplies a few days before Christmas and the exit of the single European market.
Read also: Mutation of the Covid-19: Europeans want to avoid chaos in the United Kingdom
The list of countries deciding to suspend arrivals of travelers from the United Kingdom, which includes most of the EU countries, continued to grow on Monday, with now Russia and India in particular .
The World Health Organization, however, took the opposite view of the British Minister of Health, believing that the new variant of the virus was not "
out of control
".
Read also: Covid-19: this English variant that worries Europe
Boris Johnson has caused amazement and sometimes anger over the weekend by resetting, with a few hours notice, 16 million people in London and the south-east of England.
Read also: Between a Christmas in the French or in the English, the French in the United Kingdom are torn
Green light for Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in Europe
The European Union authorized the vaccine from Pfizer / BioNTech after the green light Monday from the European regulator, the Medicines Agency (AEM).
The AEM also affirmed that there is no evidence that this vaccine is not effective against the new strain of the coronavirus.
Read also: Covid-19: the vaccination campaign in France will begin on Sunday
The BioNTech and Pfizer laboratories have immediately indicated that they are "
ready
" to deliver the doses to EU countries.
Several European countries, including France and Germany, want to start vaccination in the next few days.
Read also: Covid-19: what will an employee risk if he refuses to be vaccinated?
United States: first Moderna vaccines, aid plan in sight
Just after a Connecticut nurse was vaccinated on Monday, December 20 in front of cameras with the Moderna vaccine, marking the start of the vaccination campaign in the United States, United States President-elect Joe Biden also received in live in front of television cameras the first dose of a Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19, in a hospital in Newark, in his state of Delaware.
Congress also gave its approval on Monday to a new support plan for families and businesses hard hit by the pandemic.
The aid package, which amounts to nearly 900 billion dollars, must take over from the gigantic 2.200 billion plan adopted as a matter of urgency at the end of March.
The Order of Physicians files a complaint against several doctors including Didier Raoult
The National Council of the French Order of Physicians announced on Monday that it had lodged a complaint against six doctors including the two infectious diseases specialists Didier Raoult and Christian Perronne, accused of having conveyed false information on the pandemic.
Read also: Christian Perronne, the infectious disease specialist in the sights of the health authorities
First source of contamination in Antarctica
An outbreak of coronavirus was detected on a military base in Antarctica, the only continent that was until then not affected by the pandemic, with 36 people, 25 soldiers and 10 civilians, on a Chilean navy installation.
New record of cases in Russia
Russia recorded a record of new daily cases of coronavirus infections on Monday, December 20, in the absence of general containment to preserve the economy and despite a second wave that hits the country head-on.
Russia has reported 29,350 new infections in the past 24 hours, for a total of more than 2.87 million cases.
The death toll officially stands at 51,351, including 493 additional in 24 hours.
Reconfinement in Ontario, relief in Hungary and Slovenia
The most populous province in Canada, Ontario will be reconfigured from Saturday for 28 days in the south of the province and 14 days in the north, less populated, while Toronto, the main city of the country, has already been reconfigured since a month.
For its part, Morocco has implemented a nationwide nighttime curfew and new restrictive measures, from Wednesday and for a period of three weeks, while 2,000 new positive cases are recorded daily in the kingdom. .
Conversely, Hungary and Slovenia will relax health rules for Christmas to allow their inhabitants to spend the holidays with their families, their governments have indicated.
