The city of Beijing in fear of confinement, Denmark suspends its vast vaccination campaign...
Le Figaro
takes stock this Tuesday, April 26 on the latest information related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read alsoCovid long: three quarters of hospitalized patients struggle to recover
Denmark suspends vast anti-Covid vaccination campaign
Denmark, where all restrictions were lifted on February 1, will temporarily end its vast anti-Covid vaccination campaign, health authorities announced on Tuesday.
“
We are in a good position.
Spring has arrived and we have good control of the epidemic, which seems to be easing
,” explained in a press release one of the officials of the Danish Health Agency SST, Bolette Søborg.
“
That is why we are closing the mass vaccination program against Covid-19
”.
This decision is justified by the high vaccination coverage (nearly 81% of the 5.8 million Danes received two doses and 61.6% three) and encouraging indicators: with stable hospitalization rates and a drop in the number of new infections.
The campaign must resume afterwards and the vaccines remain available for the non-vaccinated who wish them.
Read alsoCovid 19: more deaths in 2021 than in 2020 in the United States
Beijing expands screening, containment threatens
Screening extended to almost all of the 22 million inhabitants, cancellation of wedding ceremonies and shows, closing of gymnasiums: the city of Beijing lives on Tuesday in fear of general confinement like in Shanghai.
China has been facing an epidemic outbreak since March that affects many provinces to varying degrees.
It responds to this with a zero Covid strategy, that is to say mainly by quarantine and massive screening.
»SEE ALSO – Covid-19: faced with an upsurge in cases, the Chinese comply with compulsory screening in Beijing
The hardest hit city is Shanghai, which again announced 52 new deaths on Tuesday and nearly 17,000 positive cases in 24 hours.
The 25 million inhabitants have been under severe confinement since the beginning of April.
The situation is infinitely less serious in Beijing.
But more than 100 positive cases have been reported since last week, including 33 new ones announced on Tuesday - an increase from previous days.
In order to identify and isolate infected people as quickly as possible, the Beijing authorities are carrying out a screening campaign which extended to 12 of the city's 16 districts on Tuesday.
As of Monday, residents and employees of the Chaoyang district, the city's most populous and home to many multinationals, offices, embassies and shopping malls, had already been tested.
Eleven new districts began screening their residents on Tuesday.
In total, approximately 20 million inhabitants are affected by this campaign.
At the same time, the city begins to impose restrictions.
Even if the authorities have not mentioned the possibility of confinement, the example of Shanghai frightens many Beijingers who prefer to stockpile food to deal with this eventuality.
Read alsoFamily solidarity worked well during the Covid crisis
Biden doubles availability of Covid-19 pills
Joe Biden's administration announced on Tuesday that it is doubling the number of places where at-risk Americans can get free Covid-19 treatment pills.
These oral drugs, like Pfizer's Paxlovid antiviral, are seen as a new weapon of choice in the fight against the virus that has killed nearly a million people in the United States alone and continues to spread. .
” SEE ALSO – Covid-19: we must not “let our guard down”, warns the WHO
"
One of the most effective treatments available is Pfizer's antiviral pill, Paxlovid, which has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by around 90%
," a spokesperson told reporters.
senior government official.
With 20 million treatments ordered, the government now has “
vast stocks
” and will double distribution locations to around 40,000, the official said.
The pills are notably available in pharmacies and in hospitals and health centers, and the American drug agency, the FDA, has authorized this treatment for high-risk patients aged 12 and over.
So far, about 500,000 antiviral treatments have been administered, the senior official said, and the pace is accelerating.
Read alsoCovid-19: only one in 4 hospitalized patients fully recovered after one year, according to a study
There are more obese children since the health crisis, according to a study carried out in France
Cases of obesity and overweight have increased sharply among the youngest since the start of the health crisis, shows Tuesday a study carried out in a French department and confirming other work already carried out abroad.
Read alsoCovid-19: the censorship of a video on the confinement of Shanghai infuriates Chinese Internet users
Among four-year-old children, “
overweight and obesity (…) increased significantly in 2020-2021, compared to the two previous school years
”, summarize the authors of this study, carried out under the aegis of the Public Health Agency France in Val-de-Marne, a department in the Paris region.
The authors examined data from nearly 50,000 children attending kindergarten in this department.
These figures come from health checks systematically carried out in the middle section, when the children are around four years old.
Data shows that the proportion of obese children nearly doubled in the two years roughly corresponding to the start of the health crisis.
It went from 2.8% to 4.6%.
The rate of overweight children, a situation that covers broader criteria than obesity, has also increased, from 8.9% to 11.2%.
