To deliver more doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, the American company Moderna has offered to fill its vials with up to 15 doses of vaccine.
In France, the circulation of the virus on the territory remains stable, despite still high indicators.
Follow the evolution of the situation live.
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Faced with the prospect of a lasting cohabitation with the coronavirus, hopes rest more than ever on vaccination.
To speed up immunization campaigns, the American company Moderna has requested authorization from various health authorities around the world to increase the capacity of its vaccine vials by 50%.
In France, despite a slight drop in hospitalizations, the number of contaminations remains high, and the situation is particularly worrying in Moselle.
The main information to remember:
The vaccination campaign is accelerating in Europe and around the world.
The number of contaminations remains high in France.
The situation is particularly worrying in Moselle, where some elected officials are asking for strict confinement.
More than 2.6 million people have died around the globe since the start of the pandemic.
Moderna wants to increase the capacity of its vaccine vials by 50%
The American biotechnology company Moderna said on Friday that it had requested authorization from various health authorities around the world to increase the capacity of its vials of vaccine against Covid-19 by 50%, in order to speed up vaccination campaigns by Classes.
"In order to optimize resources and opportunities to deliver more doses faster to each market, Moderna offered to fill its vials with up to 15 doses of vaccine, compared to the previous 10," the company said. in a statement to AFP.
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Towards an explanation of the origin of the pandemic?
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "all hypotheses remain on the table" to explain the origin of the pandemic, after a month-long mission of experts commissioned by the organization to China .
These experts appeared to rule out that the virus could have escaped from the city's virology institute, as the Trump administration claimed, during their press conference in Wuhan on Monday.
They referred to a "highly improbable" hypothesis that did not justify further investigation.
The virus for a long time "among us"
The world must prepare for the coronavirus to stay "with us" for a long time despite vaccines, Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), warned Friday.
In an interview with AFP, she called for maintaining the restrictions in force in Europe for the moment.
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In France, a high number of contaminations, but a slight decrease in hospitalizations
20,701 positive cases of Covid-19 were recorded in 24 hours by Public Health France on Friday, in the average of the last days.
Encouraging sign, new admissions to the hospital over a week have dropped below the 11,000 mark.
But the burden remains high with around 27,000 Covid-19 patients still hospitalized.
Vaccination remains the only prospect to get out of the tunnel, but it does not emerge immediately.
2,060,675 people received at least one dose of vaccine.
In February, nearly 440 people with Covid-19 died every day in hospitals or nursing homes, for a total of 80,803 since the start of the epidemic which mainly affects the elderly.
With the variants, the situation in Moselle worries
A large number of cases of South African and Brazilian variants of the coronavirus have been detected in Moselle, risking to undermine the relative stability of the country on the epidemiological level.
"We must obviously be ready to act, if the situation were to require it, in order to protect the population in a territory which has already paid a heavy price for the pandemic", affirmed Olivier Véran during a press conference.
Visiting Moselle on Friday to "assess the health situation" of the department, the Minister of Health has pledged to take measures against the spread of variants if it becomes necessary.
An announcement in the form of disappointment for some local elected officials, including the mayor of Metz, who are calling for strict re-containment immediately.
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The vaccination campaign will accelerate in Canada ...
The vaccine campaign against Covid-19 in Canada will be able to accelerate in March with an increase in dose deliveries to compensate for recent delays, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.
Further south, the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) issued new guidelines on Friday calling on schools to reopen as soon as possible, offering a detailed plan to limit the spread of Covid there. 19.
... and Hungary becomes the first EU country to use Sputnik V
Hungary on Friday became the first country in the European Union to use the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, announced the Director General of Health, Cecilia Muller.
Regarding restrictions on the old continent, the Italian government has decided to extend the ban on travel between regions of the country by ten days, which was due to expire on Monday.
Over 161 million doses of vaccine administered worldwide
More than 161.2 million doses of anti-Covid vaccines have been administered in at least 91 countries or territories, according to a count made by AFP on Friday from official sources.
Israel, the most advanced country in terms of its population, has already injected doses to nearly 44% of its population (28% have received both doses).
The United States, the first in absolute terms, administered 46.4 million doses to 10.5% of its population.
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Nearly 2.4 million dead, serious situation in South America
The pandemic has killed more than 2.36 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Friday from official sources.
After the United States (480,567 dead), the most bereaved countries are Brazil (237,489), Mexico (171,234), India (155,360) and the United Kingdom (115,529).
The situation is very worrying in South America: Argentina has exceeded the threshold of 50,000 deaths linked to Covid-19 and has more than two million cases of contamination, while Peru has recorded its record of hospitalizations linked to the coronavirus .
But the number of victims is globally underestimated.
It is based on the daily reports of the national health authorities but excludes the revisions carried out a posteriori by statistical organizations.