Geneva (AFP)

Soon ten million cases worldwide and catastrophic economic prospects: the Covid-19 pandemic, far from slowing down, promises dark weeks and months for the planet.

Michael Ryan, director of health emergencies at the World Health Organization, said on Wednesday "a continuing and worrying trend, with many countries experiencing increases of 25-50% over the past week. ".

"The epidemic in the American continent is very intense, especially in Central and South America," he said. "Unfortunately, the pandemic in many countries on the American continent has not reached its peak," he added.

For his part Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the WHO, declared, during the same virtual press conference, "that during the first month of this epidemic, less than 10,000 cases were reported to the WHO. In the past month, nearly 4 million cases have been reported. We expect to reach a total of 10 million cases next week. "

He welcomed the decision of the Saudi authorities to allow only a thousand people to make the great pilgrimage to Mecca this year, stressing that "this is another example of the difficult choices that all countries must make to give the priority to health ".

- Worse than expected -

According to an AFP report from official sources, the pandemic of new coronavirus has killed at least 478,818 people worldwide since China officially announced the appearance of the disease in December.

More than 9,326,400 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 196 countries and territories, a figure that all experts agree is certainly underestimated.

International Monetary Fund economists revised their estimates of the impact of the virus on the global economy on a more dramatic note on Wednesday.

The IMF warned that this "crisis like no other" was not only much worse than expected, but that the recovery would be slower than expected.

Thus, the world economy should shrink by 4.9% this year: much more than the 3% expected in April in the heart of the pandemic, when the IMF already stressed that it was the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the thirties.

And for certain countries, particularly in Europe, the contraction in gross domestic product is staggering: -12.5% ​​for France, -12.8% for Spain and Italy.

Even if global GDP should rebound by 5.4% in 2021, the IMF admits that the forecasting exercise is affected by an unprecedented degree of uncertainty.

In several European countries which thought, in view of encouraging health statistics, that they were out of the woods, the prospects were darkening and the specter of a second wave came to haunt officials and public opinion.

British health professionals are therefore worried about a resurgence of the pandemic, the day after the announcement of the most important phase of deconfinement from 4 July.

In Germany, presented as a model for managing the pandemic, more than 600,000 people were reconfigured after the appearance of a major outbreak of contamination from the largest slaughterhouse in Europe, in the west of the country.

In Slovenia, the wearing of masks is reimposed in places and public transport. In Croatia, a quarantine obligation, which had been lifted, is reinstated for travelers from the Balkans, where the contamination figures have started to rise again.

The parties or gatherings on the public highway "endanger months of collective efforts" to fight against the coronavirus, warned for his part the Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès.

In front of the press, she reacted to images that had gone viral on social networks, showing several hundred people partying on the night of Saturday to Sunday in a district of Brussels well known to night owls.

In Italy, medical authorities are concerned about the relaxation of the population, as evidenced by the drop in sales of masks - not found at the start of confinement - while the beaches are crowded and festive aperitifs are multiplying in the country which recorded 34,657 dead.

Caution is also required in Spain, where Catalonia has reversed its decision to authorize the reopening of nightclubs, authorizing dancing only for people who already know each other, and only in restaurants or hotels.

- Reopening of brothels -

In the United States, the south of the country, from Florida to California, has become the hot spot of the epidemic.

With nearly 330 million inhabitants, the United States has the worst record in the world in absolute terms: more than 121,000 deaths and 2.3 million cases detected.

Very hard hit by the Covid-19 at the start of the epidemic in the United States, New York and New Jersey as well as neighboring Connecticut on Wednesday decreed a quarantine for people coming from the states where the pandemic is accelerating.

Nearly half of the 50 states in the United States have experienced an increase in the number of cases in the past two weeks, and some, such as Texas and Florida, are posting daily records in the number of cases recorded.

"The next two weeks will be critical" to respond to "worrying" outbreaks of contamination, warned Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief White House immunologist, expressing concern that more than 32,000 cases had been diagnosed in 24 hours Tuesday.

And in Brazil, the rate of contamination has resumed its upward curve after the gradual deconfinement in some States, deemed precipitated by specialists.

Tuesday evening, the country recorded in 24 hours its second highest number of contaminations, but also of deaths, with 39,436 new confirmed cases and 1,374 deaths.

The only glimmer of hope came Wednesday from the Netherlands, which announced the reopening on July 1 of their brothels.

It is important to check in advance if a client has symptoms of Covid-19, the government said.

"Everyone is very happy with the news. We have no more money," said Felicia Anna, president of the sex workers' union in the red light district of Amsterdam.

burx-mm / lpt

© 2020 AFP