The Covid-19 epidemic is not over and is even starting up again in several European countries. France, criticized by the World Health Organization (WHO), but also by French scientists, for having lifted the last anti-Covid measures too soon, has also experienced an epidemic rebound since the beginning of March.
While in China, the BA.2 variant of Omicron is causing panic and causing the number of cases to skyrocket, as in Shanghai where the town hall called for calm on Wednesday March 23. Scientists are also calling on Hong Kong to abandon its “zero Covid” strategy, which no longer seems tenable because of the level of contagiousness of the sub-variant.
- WHO criticizes several countries, including France, for having “brutally” lifted their measures
Several European countries, including Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, have lifted their anti-Covid measures too “brutally” and find themselves faced with a sharp rise in cases under the effect of the subvariant BA.2, lamented the WHO on Tuesday March 22. During a press conference relocated to Moldova, the director of the WHO in Europe, Hans Kluge, said he was “vigilant” about the current epidemic situation on the continent, while claiming to remain “optimistic”.
Currently, the number of Covid cases is on the rise in 18 of the 53 countries in the WHO Europe zone, according to the health organization. “Countries where we see a particular rise are the UK, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy and Germany,” he said. “These countries have lifted the restrictions abruptly from ‘too much’ to ‘not enough’,” said the UN official. According to WHO data, the number of new cases in Europe had fallen sharply after peaking in late January, but it has been rebounding since early March.
- Shanghai fears a “panic” with the rise of Covid-19
Shanghai City Hall called for calm on Wednesday in the face of the risk of “panic” caused by the rise in Covid-19 cases in China’s largest city, where stadiums are converted into quarantine centers. Several districts of the Chinese economic capital are already placed under confinement, but many residents fear a generalized quarantine and have started to store food.
China has been going through its most serious Covid outbreak for a few days since the initial wave at the start of 2020, promptly stemmed by the authorities.
- Scientists urge Hong Kong to abandon ‘zero Covid’ strategy
Top Hong Kong scientists on Tuesday urged the territory’s authorities to abandon China’s “zero Covid” strategy ahead of another epidemic wave so that the financial hub does not become a “closed port forever”. “The past two months have been a very painful experience and we cannot afford to wait,” Gabriel Leung, who leads a team of scientists working on the virus, told reporters.
On Monday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced an easing of restrictions from April 1 – mainly concerning international flights and the duration of quarantine on arrival in the territory – but refused to give a sheet. way out of the crisis.
- New Zealand to ease health restrictions
New Zealand will ease its health restrictions this week after the number of cases peaked, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday, estimating the population largely immune. The latter announced that limits on outdoor gatherings would be lifted on Friday March 25, allowing sporting events and concerts to take place without restrictions.
She added that the vaccination pass will no longer be compulsory from April 4, and that most vaccination requirements for certain categories of employees will be dropped. “To date over 500,000 cases of Covid-19 have been reported and modeling experts estimate there were likely 1.7 million infections,” she said, conceding that the “Covid (was) here to stay”.
- Joe Biden’s spokeswoman positive for Covid-19
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki announced that she had tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, stating that US President Joe Biden had tested negative on the same day. “I had two meetings respecting the distance yesterday with the president and he is not considered a contact case”, she specified in a press release, on the eve of the departure of Joe Biden for an extremely expected in Europe. Jen Psaki added that she was only showing “mild symptoms” and would undergo a five-day period of self-isolation.
The White House spokeswoman had already tested positive for Covid-19 last fall, which had already prevented her from making an international trip with Joe Biden to the G20 summit. in Rome. His announcement comes as cases of Covid-19 multiply in the entourage of the American president.
- Pfizer will provide its anti-Covid treatment to developing countries
Pfizer will sell up to 4 million doses of its treatment against Covid-19 to Unicef, in particular for African countries, the American laboratory announced in a press release on Tuesday, without specifying the amount of the transaction.
The United Nations Children’s Fund will be responsible for distributing Paxlovid tablets in 95 countries representing approximately 53% of the world’s population. “Countries with low or middle-low incomes will be able to obtain treatments at cost price while countries with middle-high incomes will pay according to the price grid defined by Pfizer”, details the press release. Deliveries are due to begin in April.