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Back home for the people of Melbourne. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the five million inhabitants of Australia's second city are forced to reconfigure themselves from midnight on Wednesday. The disease continues to spread in the United States, where the threshold of three million cases has been crossed. And if, in Europe, it seems contained, it continues to burn in Latin America.
The main information to remember:
- The milestone of three million detected cases has been crossed in the United States
- The five million inhabitants of Melbourne are now reconfigured
- The epidemic continues to grow globally, particularly in Latin America
Reconfigured Melbourne
In terms of balance, Australia is far from the most affected like the United States and Brazil, with around 9,000 cases and 106 deaths. But authorities have recorded an increase in cases in Melbourne, with more than a hundred new infections daily. An outbreak in the eyes of the authorities of this country which seemed to have succeeded in controlling the epidemic of Covid-19. The five million inhabitants of the metropolis have therefore been ordered to confine themselves again for six weeks, counting from midnight on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
They will have to stay at home except for professional reasons, to exercise, to go to medical appointments or to buy essential products. Such measures had only recently been lifted. Restaurants and cafes can only serve take-out, while gyms and cinemas will have to close again. In anticipation of the restructuring, the supermarket shelves were ransacked on Wednesday.
Over three million cases detected in the United States
After their divorce from the World Health Organization (WHO) - described on Wednesday by Germany as "a setback" in the face of the pandemic which has killed more than 545,000 people worldwide - the United States remains the country the hardest affected by the disease, in number of contaminations as in number of deaths. To date, the epidemic has left 132,195 people dead in the world's leading economic power and 3,046,351 cases of contamination were detected there on Wednesday evening.
President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday called on schools in the country to reopen, denies the reality of this rebound: "the death rate from coronavirus (a) has been divided by ten!", He tweeted.
The outbreak continues in Latin America
The epidemic continues to ravage Latin America and the Caribbean, where more than three million cases of Covid-19 have been identified, more than half of them in Brazil. Second most affected country, this country counts 67,964 dead for 1,713,160 cases but Jair Bolsonaro, its president of 65 years, even contaminated, remains defiant: "I am perfectly fine", he assured.
Peru surpassed the 11,000 dead mark a week after initiating gradual deconfinement, and Mexico recorded a new daily record of 6,995 cases on Wednesday. And official figures jump in Venezuela: more than 1,500 sick on June 1, more than 7,000 a month later.
By far the most affected country in the Near and Middle East, Iran has surpassed the 12,000 dead mark, authorities said on Wednesday. Africa remains far behind, both in terms of declared contamination and deaths due to Covid-19, but the continent crossed the barrier of 500,000 cases on Wednesday, after having surpassed 10,000 deaths on July 1.
Situation still under control in France and Europe
In Europe, the situation seems to be under control, even if the Old Continent remains the hardest hit by the virus with more than 200,000 deaths, including more than two thirds in the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain. In Serbia, new clashes erupted Wednesday in Belgrade during a rally of protesters furious at the management by the authorities of the coronavirus crisis.
In France, 32 new deaths linked to Covid-19 have been recorded, bringing the total number of deaths since the start of the epidemic to 29,933, the Directorate General of Health (DGS) announced on Wednesday. The number of patients with Covid-19 in intensive care continues to decrease with 529 patients affected, 9 fewer than Tuesday. In detail, "19,489 people died in hospitals. The latest report released Tuesday for social and medico-social establishments reported 10,476 dead. The number of people hospitalized fell significantly: 7,850 people were hospitalized for an infection Coronavirus according to Tuesday's assessment, against 7,297 according to Wednesday's assessment, which shows a clear ebb of the epidemic on the national level.
The mayor of Paris announced that the city would have its traditional fireworks fired from the Eiffel Tower for the national holiday of July 14, but without public.