Vaccinated Europeans will be able to enter France without a PCR test from June 9, but Britons or Americans will have to test negative, even vaccinated.

The decline is also continuing in hospitals in France, while vaccination is still accelerating with the opening to adolescents from 12 to 18 years old from June 15.

Follow the situation live. 

Already more than two billion doses of vaccines against Covid-19 have been administered worldwide and several states have decided to open vaccination to people over 12 years old.

In France, hospital pressure continues to decline.

Follow the situation live.

Information to remember: 

  • Hospital pressure continues to decline in France

  • From June 9, vaccinated Europeans will be able to travel to France without a PCR test

  • Two billion doses of vaccines have been injected around the world

Vaccinated Europeans will be able to enter France without a PCR test from June 9

Europeans vaccinated against Covid-19 will be able to enter France without a PCR test from June 9, while proof of a negative test (PCR or antigen) will still be required for travelers from the United Kingdom and the United States in particular, whether they are vaccinated or not, according to a document released Friday by the government.

From June 9, the flow of travelers between France and foreign countries will be reopened according to modalities that vary depending on the health situation of countries classified by color (green, orange and red) and vaccination, according to a document. called a "border reopening strategy".

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Hospital blood pressure still falling in France

Hospital pressure due to Covid-19 continues to decline in France, with ever fewer patients in intensive care units, according to data from Public Health France published on Friday.

The intensive care units, which treat the most serious cases, received 2,571 patients, against 2,677 Thursday, and 2,754 Wednesday.

This crucial indicator fell below the 3,000 mark on Sunday, and has more than halved since its peak in late April, at the height of the third wave of the epidemic.

The number of new admissions to these services stood at 91 in 24 hours (94 Thursday).

In total, 14,801 Covid patients occupied the beds of French hospitals, against 15,283 the day before and 17,272 a week ago, specifies the health agency.

Some 408 patients were admitted there in one day (458 Thursday).

The disease has killed 81 people in the past 24 hours (71 Thursday), bringing the total death toll to nearly 110,000 since the start of the epidemic in March 2020.

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Decline in the number of deaths since early May in France

The average number of deaths observed every day in France, all causes combined, has been declining since early May, after a peak in January and then stagnation since mid-March, INSEE indicates in its weekly death toll on Friday. during the Covid-19 epidemic.

While 2,150 deaths were recorded each day on average in January, then 2,040 in February and just under 1,900 in March and April, this number fell to 1,730 deaths per day on average over the period from 1 to 24 May - date the latest figures available - according to the National Institute of Statistical Studies.

The HAS wants the vaccination of adolescents in stages

Several countries have decided to open vaccination to adolescents. Italy, the European country most affected by the pandemic after the United Kingdom, on Thursday opened the vaccination against Covid-19 to all age groups from 12 years old. The Pfizer / BioNtech vaccine was also approved there for 12-15 year olds, after a "rigorous review regarding its safety".

In France, young people aged 12 to 18 will be able to be vaccinated against Covid-19 from June 15, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday.

The High Authority for Health advocates a phased opening of adolescent vaccination.

The agency recommends to "open very quickly" vaccination to 12-15 year olds with weaknesses or living in the entourage of vulnerable people, but to wait until adult vaccination is "sufficiently advanced" before generalizing it to this age group.

A dose of Pfizer, insufficient in the face of variants

After a single dose of Pfizer vaccine, one is less likely to produce protective antibodies against the variants initially detected in India and South Africa than against that initially spotted in England, according to a laboratory study published in the medical journal The Lancet .

TGVs, "traveling clusters"?

In an article, the Mediapart site unearthed a report from the Labor Inspectorate on the circulation of the virus in TGVs.

According to this document, the renewal of the air in these trains is largely insufficient, giving rise to fear of "traveling clusters".

Mediapart also notes that unlike airplanes, TGVs are not equipped with high performance filters. 

On Friday, the SNCF reacted by affirming that it applied "with the greatest rigor" the sanitary instructions "in terms of ventilation or filtration of the air on board trains, as it enforces the obligation to wear a mask ".

The Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, wanted to be reassuring.

"The figures we have, for more than a year and a half now, show that public transport is not priority propagation places," he said on BFM TV.

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Two billion doses of vaccines administered worldwide

At least 2,019,696,022 doses have been injected in 215 countries or territories, less than six months after the start of the first vaccination campaigns in December 2020, according to this AFP count based on official sources. Outside of micro-states, Israel remains the country with the most advanced vaccination campaign, with nearly six in ten Israelis already fully vaccinated. Also in the lead are countries such as Canada (59% of the population received at least one dose there), the United Kingdom (58.3%), Chile (56.6%) and the United States. United States (51%), while in the EU, 254.98 million doses were administered to 39% of its inhabitants. 

But in Africa, affected by a new increase in cases, vaccine deliveries are almost at a standstill, warned the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday.

Only 2% of Africans to date have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Of the six countries that have not yet vaccinated, four are in Africa: Tanzania, Burundi, Chad and Eritrea.

Africa is not ready to face a third wave of the pandemic, also warned the WHO. 

Argentina crosses 80,000 death mark

Argentina exceeded the threshold of 80,000 deaths from the coronavirus on Friday, for a total of around 4 million cases of contamination since the start of the pandemic, according to the country's health authorities.

In the past 24 hours, 30,950 new cases of Covid-19 and 539 deaths have been recorded, bringing the total number of deaths to 80,411, while the average of new daily cases stood at over 500 last week.

At the end of 2020, Argentina had some 43,000 deaths.

Since the start of 2021, this number has almost doubled, according to official data.

Argentina wants to give new impetus to its vaccination campaign from next week, when it starts producing the Sputnik V vaccine from the Russian laboratory Gamaleya, on its soil.

To date, 11 million people have been fully immunized in the Latin American country.

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More than 3.7 million deaths worldwide

The pandemic has killed at least 3,704,003 people around the world since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources on Friday.

After the United States (596,996 deaths), the countries with the highest number of deaths are Brazil (470,842), India (340,702), Mexico (228,362) and Peru (185,380). 

These figures, which are based on daily reports from national health authorities, are generally underestimated. They exclude the upward revisions carried out a posteriori by certain statistical organizations. By taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, the WHO estimates that the real toll is "two to three times higher".