The United Kingdom is inaugurating a new vaccine, the vaccination campaign is gaining momentum in the United States, Norway is tightening the screw ... To not miss any of the latest highlights related to Covid-19,
Le Figaro
takes stock of the latest news from this Monday, January 4.
Read also: Vaccination: logistics being broken in
Start of AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine in UK
The United Kingdom becomes on Monday January 4 the first country to administer to its population the vaccine from the British laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford against Covid-19.
British authorities have ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine, 520,000 of which are ready on Monday, according to the Department of Health.
In England, hundreds of new vaccination centers are due to open this week, in addition to the 730 already in place.
The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine was also authorized by Argentina and, on Sunday, by India, which will allow this country of 1.3 billion inhabitants to start one of the most massive vaccination campaigns in the world .
Boris Johnson considers tighter restrictions
The British Prime Minister warned that more severe restrictions could be decided in England to combat the rapid progression of the new coronavirus, attributed to a new variant of the virus.
The United Kingdom is one of the countries in Europe most bereaved by the Covid-19, with 75,024 dead.
Nearly 55,000 more people have tested positive for the virus in 24 hours, exceeding the threshold of 50,000 for the sixth day in a row, according to the latest official data released on Sunday.
Read also: Faced with a galloping epidemic, London accelerates the pace of vaccination
Accelerated vaccination in the United States
The vaccination campaign in the United States is gaining momentum and could reach one million injections per day, officials have assured in the face of criticism of its initial delay in a country which has just passed the 350,000 death mark.
"There were some dysfunctions,"
acknowledged the eminent American immunologist Anthony Fauci, who is advising the government on the health crisis.
"In the last 72 hours, 1.5 million first injections have been recorded, which is 500,000 per day,"
said the chief medical officer of the United States, Jerome Adams.
Norway tightens the screw
To avoid a rebound in the pandemic, Norway, where the Covid-19 contamination rate is one of the lowest in Europe, has announced new restrictions.
Banning the serving of alcohol in bars and restaurants (which remain open), limiting to five people for private indoor events and 10 for public events, and closing universities are among the measures detailed by Prime Minister Erna Solberg, valid until January 18.
Saudi Arabia reopens its borders
Saudi Arabia has announced the reopening of its borders and the resumption of international flights after a two-week suspension due to the appearance of a variant of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom and other countries.
Chinese vaccine authorized in Egypt
Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world with some 100 million inhabitants, has announced that it has authorized the use of the vaccine developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm.
More than 1.83 million dead
The pandemic has killed at least 1,835,824 people worldwide for more than 84.5 million people infected, according to a report established by AFP on Sunday according to official figures.
The United States is the most affected country in terms of both deaths and cases, with 351,452 deaths for more than 20.6 million cases.
Brazil (196,018 dead) and India (149,435 dead) follow.
These figures do not take into account
ex post
revisions made
by statistical agencies, such as in Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom.
