The Netherlands experienced on the night of Monday 25 to Tuesday 26 January a second outbreak of violence orchestrated by opponents of the curfew, supposed to stem a coronavirus epidemic for which Joe Biden considers the United States close to immunity collective by the summer.
Read also: Were there really only 60 deaths from Covid among 15-44 year olds in France?
Demonstrations against restrictions multiply
For the second night in a row, several cities in the Netherlands (Amersfoort, Geleen, Den Bosch, Haarlem ...) were the scene of riots on Monday January 25, after the imposition this weekend of a curfew to to fight against the pandemic.
In the Middle East, clashes in Tripoli, the large city in northern Lebanon, pitted the security forces against young demonstrators opposed to the confinement, the Lebanese Red Cross reporting more than 30 wounded.
And in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced Monday the violence linked to strict confinement, which had occurred the day before in ultra-Orthodox localities and neighborhoods, and praised the "
hard way
" used by the police who arrested thirteen people.
Herd immunity in the United States by summer
The United States will move closer to collective immunity from Covid-19 by the summer, said US President Joe Biden, showing his confidence in the deployment of vaccines.
"
I am confident that by the summer we will be much closer to collective immunity
," said the new tenant of the White House.
A case of the coronavirus variant, initially spotted in Brazil, has been identified for the first time in the United States, authorities in Minnesota said Monday, January 24.
Moderna claims to be effective against variants
Moderna's anti-Covid vaccine remains effective against variants of the coronavirus, including the British, but a reduction in protection is observed against the South African variant, the American company announced.
Moderna will launch “
as a precaution
” trials to test an additional dose developed specifically against the South African variant.
Read also: Vaccines: what's the difference between Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech?
Vaccines: Merck and Pasteur give up
The American pharmaceutical company Merck announced Monday that it was interrupting work on two potential vaccines against Covid-19, one of which was developed in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute.
The first clinical trials on these two vaccines showed that "
the immune response was lower than that caused by a natural infection and that reported for other vaccines
" against Covid-19, explained Merck.
AstraZeneca: EU raises the tone
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on AstraZeneca CEO to honor Covid vaccine shipments with the EU while European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said "
not acceptable
»The announced delays.
The AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine deliveries will be smaller than expected in the first quarter due to a "
drop in yield
" at a manufacturing site, the British laboratory warned.
Read also: Vaccination: AstraZeneca put under pressure by the European Commission
Relaxation of restrictions in California
With a slight improvement in the situation in hospitals, California has eased restrictions on certain activities, which could in some cases allow the reopening of outdoor catering and hair salons.
Despite more than three million officially recorded cases, twice as many as in early December, Governor Gavin Newsom believes that his state has now "
gone through most of this resurgence
".
"
With immediate effect, all regions of the state of California cease to be under 'confinement',
" he said at a press conference.
Gap between rich and poor
The vaccination gap between rich and poor is widening, worried the WHO, which needs $ 26 billion for its device to accelerate access to tools to fight against Covid-19.
"
Vaccine nationalism could cost the world economy up to $ 9,200 billion
," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, citing a new study by the International Chamber of Commerce.
A gorilla treated with antibodies
An elderly gorilla infected with the coronavirus has been treated with an experimental treatment based on synthetic antibodies, the San Diego Zoo in California announced on Monday.
Suffering from pneumonia and heart disease, he was treated with a cocktail of heart medications, antibiotics and "
monoclonal
"
antibodies
.