On Friday, the World Health Organization's emergency committee issues recommendations regarding the emergence of more contagious mutated versions of the emerging corona virus, which may lead to a greater spread of the pandemic, which has more than two million deaths.

On Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on the members of the committee, which usually meets every 3 months, two weeks before their meeting, to discuss the latest developments in the field of the virus and the use of vaccination certificates and checks for international flights.

Britain closed its borders to arrivals from all countries of South America and Portugal, starting Friday at 4:00 GMT, due to a modified version that was detected in Brazil and described by the World Health Organization as "disturbing."

In Germany, the most populous country in the European Union, the number of infections has exceeded two million, according to what the Robert Koch Institute for Health Control announced Friday, and Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed for a "significant" tightening of restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.

The authorities counted 22,368 new infections with the new Corona virus during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to two million and 958.

The country also recorded 1113 deaths during the same period of time, bringing the total number of Covid-19 deaths in Germany to 44,994.

For its part, Portugal decided to impose a general lockdown again from Friday, while France will expand the curfew on Saturday to cover its entire territory as of 17:00 GMT, and it will require arrivals from any country outside the European Union to present a negative "Covid-19" examination. Result on arrival.

Last week, Mexico recorded the highest death toll on its soil since the start of the pandemic, with an average of 983 deaths per day over the past seven days, according to figures published Thursday.

And the World Health Organization said that a recent mutated version - originating in the Brazilian Amazon and announced by Japan on Sunday - may affect immunity.

Before that, it detected two mutated copies, the British and South African, which are more contagious than the main virus and are spreading successively in at least 25 countries, at a time the world is struggling to cope with a new wave of infections, with the imposition of curfews and vaccination campaigns, without being able to curb it .

This new wave did not exclude China, where the epidemic first appeared at the end of 2019 in the Wuhan region (center).

Despite its control over the pandemic, on Thursday it recorded its first death since May in Hebei Province.

On Thursday, experts from the World Health Organization arrived in China to investigate the origin of the disease.

The visit is very sensitive for the authorities that are trying to remove any responsibility for them in the pandemic, which has so far caused the death of at least 1,979,596 people in the world, according to a census of the French News Agency.

Contingency plan

In Italy, the government extended the state of emergency until April 30, and the Vatican announced that Pope Francesco (84 years) and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (93 years) had received the vaccine.

In Turkey, the vaccination campaign began on Thursday, with the use of the Chinese Coronavac vaccine and the vaccination of medical personnel in different regions.

A complete and strict 11-day closure began in Lebanon, which is registering a steady increase in injuries, and hospitals have reached their maximum capacity.

Tunisia also imposed a 4-day lockdown due to the "very dangerous" epidemiological situation, according to the health authorities.

In Brazil, the Amazon state (north) announced the imposition of a curfew due to the hospitals having reached their maximum capacity due to the large number of injured, at a time when it is facing major problems to supply oxygen.

Faced with the shock to the US economy, which is the strongest in the world, as a result of the pandemic, President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his $ 1900 billion economic recovery plan in an attempt to pull the country out of the worst economic crisis it has faced since the 1930s.

The plan includes subsidies for families, a fund to reopen schools, funds to speed up testing and vaccinations, cash for small businesses and boosted food aid.

This plan would prevent the country, which has recorded 390,000 deaths from the virus, from plunging further into the crisis.