The World Health Organization has not ruled out reaching a vaccine against the Coronavirus by the end of this year, and while Jordan decided to impose a two-day curfew to confront the outbreak of the epidemic, several countries, some of them Arab, recorded high infections, while schools in New York were closed for the same reason.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said today, Tuesday, that there is hope for a vaccine by the end of the world.
Yesterday, the chief emergency expert at the WHO said that 10% of the world's population, or nearly 800 million people, may have been infected with Corona, adding that the world is heading towards a difficult period in light of the acceleration of the epidemic in several regions around the world.
There are 9 experimental vaccines at the "Kovacs" initiative led by the World Health Organization, which aims to distribute two billion doses of protective vaccine against the virus by the end of 2021.
Last August, Russia announced the registration of the drug "Sputnik" in (Sputnik V) as the first vaccine in the world against the Corona virus, but the announcement was met with skepticism in the West, while there are several possible vaccines against the virus, including a vaccine developed by a university. Oxford and AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Group are in the process of final trials.
There are also tests being conducted in Africa on 15 potential vaccines against the Corona virus, according to the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a report published by Nature magazine, the center stated that 5 trials are being conducted in South Africa, and 4 in Egypt, while the rest are distributed to Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The center said that the African continent needs 1.5 billion doses of a possible vaccine against Corona, which is enough for 60% of the continent’s population, assuming that each person will receive the required two doses.
A police checkpoint during a previous curfew in the Jordanian capital, Amman (Reuters)
Developments in the Arab world
, the Jordanian authorities announced that, starting from Thursday evening for a period of 48 hours, a comprehensive curfew will be imposed, and schools have been suspended from Friday until further notice.
These decisions come with the registration of 1,537 new cases of corona and 12 deaths today, and Jordan had witnessed an unprecedented death toll a few days ago of 1,700 injuries within a single day.
Days ago, due to the increase in injuries and deaths, the Tunisian authorities imposed a partial curfew.
Today, Libya counted more than a thousand new cases of corona and 6 deaths, and despite the increase in infections, the Libyan authorities announced yesterday the resumption of group prayers in mosques, starting next Friday after a 7-month hiatus.
In the UAE, more than a thousand new cases of corona were recorded today, bringing the total to more than 100,000, and 6 additional deaths were counted.
Also in the Gulf region, more than 800 injuries and 5 deaths were recorded in the Sultanate of Oman, more than 600 injuries and 4 deaths in Kuwait, and about 500 injuries and 25 deaths in Saudi Arabia.
It also recorded more than 3 thousand injuries and 67 deaths in Iraq, which, along with Saudi Arabia, is one of the Arab countries most affected by the epidemic.
In the Palestinian Territories, about 500 new HIV infections and 10 deaths were counted.
Global figures
In Europe, which is witnessing an acceleration of the epidemic in countries such as France, Britain and Spain, Russia today recorded more than 11 thousand infections, including 4 thousand in Moscow alone, the highest toll since May 11.
In Britain, the outbreak of the epidemic continued at a rapid pace, with more than 14 thousand cases recorded today, an increase of two thousand infections from the previous day, in addition to 76 deaths.
And in France, which has been witnessing record highs for a while, today the state of alert that the authorities announced earlier to confront the outbreak of Corona, which is also spreading rapidly in other French cities, such as Marseille, went into effect.
In Italy, the Italian Minister of Health announced today that his country is considering imposing masks in public spaces, and is also considering extending the state of emergency that it imposed at the beginning of this year, in light of the increase in injuries for the ninth consecutive week.
The Italian Football League announced today that its president, Paolo Dal Pino, has been infected with the Corona virus.
In the United States, hundreds of public and private schools in New York have closed due to the increase in HIV infections, and the United States recorded more than 30,000 new cases of the Coronavirus yesterday.
In Asia, Iran today recorded more than 4 thousand new cases of corona.
Today, Malaysia recorded 691 new cases of coronavirus, in the largest daily jump in the number of cases in the country since the start of the epidemic.
As for India, today, it counted 61,000 new cases of the virus, the lowest since August 25.
Globally, today the number of infections around the world has risen to more than 35 million and 800 thousand, and deaths to one million and 50 thousand, while the number of people recovering from the virus has approached 27 million.