The United States is approaching Monday, February 22 the sad bar of half a million deaths from the coronavirus, at a time when the rhythm of vaccinations offers a glimmer of hope, as in England, where Boris Johnson presents a “
progressive
”
deconfinement plan
.
United States moves closer to 500,000 dead
The United States is approaching the threshold of 500,000 deaths from Covid-19, at a time when many indicators, foremost among which the rhythm of vaccinations, offer real glimmers of hope.
"
It's terrible, it's horrible
, reacted Sunday immunologist Anthony Fauci, adviser to Joe Biden.
We haven't seen anything like it for over a hundred years, since the 1918 pandemic
”.
According to figures from the benchmark Johns Hopkins University, the tally stood at 498,879 deaths as of 1:30 a.m. on Monday.
Read also: A disunited Europe re-engages with the United States
Deconfinement in sight in England
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson presented his plan to get England out of lockdown on Monday, with the hope that it will be the last and with the aim of reopening schools soon.
The whole country was again confined in early January to fight the Covid-19 epidemic which has killed more than 120,000 in the United Kingdom and brought hospitals to the brink of crisis.
The effects of confinement and vaccinations being felt, with a drop in the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, Boris Johnson can outline measures of deconfinement.
He will present them to parliament in the afternoon before a televised press conference in the evening.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also pledged that all adults will receive a first dose of the vaccine by the end of July and all over 50s by mid-April.
Read also: United Kingdom: containment weighs on demand but not on the pound
Australia: the vaccination campaign in the thick of it
The vaccination campaign in Australia got into the heart of the matter on Monday, not without controversy, especially on the sidelines of the Australian Open tennis tournament where spectators loudly expressed their opposition on Sunday during the closing ceremony.
Some 60,000 doses of vaccine are ready to be injected this week, with healthcare workers, police officers, employees of quarantine hotels and residents of homes for the elderly.
On Sunday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was one of the first to be vaccinated as part of an operation intended to strengthen the confidence of the population.
This launch was clouded, however, by anti-vaccine protests held in some major Australian cities, and by hostile reactions from some spectators at the men's tennis Open final.
Gaza: thousands of doses of vaccines from the Emirates
Some 20,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine have arrived in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza from the United Arab Emirates and via the Egyptian border, according to officials and witnesses.
Homeless people vaccinated in Russia
Forty homeless people were vaccinated against Covid-19 on Sunday in Saint Petersburg, Russia's second city, according to a local NGO behind the initiative.
Over 205 million doses administered
Globally, at least 205.31 million doses of anti-Covid vaccines have been administered in at least 109 countries or territories, according to a count made by AFP from official sources on Sunday at 18:45 GMT.
A figure, however, underestimated, China and Russia having not provided data since February 9.
WHO urges Tanzania to act
The Director General of the World Health Organization has called on Tanzania to take measures to protect its citizens, but also the populations of the countries visited by Tanzanians, while the Tanzanian President John Magufuli has repeatedly downplayed the dangerousness of the coronavirus.
The Moselle, a high-risk area?
The Moselle (north-eastern France), already classified as a “
risk zone
” by Germany, could go up a notch, being considered as a “
high incidence area
”, or even “
area affected by variants of the virus.
», During a meeting scheduled for Monday around Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to the regional press group Funke.
More than 2.46 million dead
The pandemic has killed more than 2.46 million people worldwide since the end of December, out of more than 111 million confirmed contaminations, according to a report established by AFP on Sunday in the middle of the day.
The United States is the country with the most deaths (498,879), ahead of Brazil (246,504) and Mexico (179,797).
These figures are globally underestimated.
They are based on daily reports from national health authorities, without including reassessments based on statistical bases.