Paris (AFP)

New reports, new measures and highlights: an update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.

- Russia claims first vaccine -

Russia announces that it is the first country to have registered a vaccine, called "Sputnik V" (V for vaccine, editor's note) in reference to the Soviet satellite. "I know that it is quite effective, that it gives lasting immunity," declared President Vladimir Poutine, who even claimed that one of his daughters had been inoculated with the vaccine.

The government hopes to start vaccinating the medical profession from September and put the vaccine into circulation on January 1, 2021 among the population. According to the authorities, 20 countries have pre-ordered a billion doses.

In the weeks leading up to the announcement, foreign scientists expressed concern about the speed of the development of such a vaccine.

For its part, Indonesia has started testing the Chinese vaccine candidate against the coronavirus on 1,600 volunteers developed by the Sinovac Biotech laboratory. It is one of the few vaccines in phase III, the last stage of clinical trials before approval, and is already being tested with 9,000 volunteers in Brazil.

- More than 20 million cases -

More than 20 million cases of Covid-19 have been officially identified worldwide, more than half of which are in America. After the first case was announced, it had taken three months to reach the first million cases, again three months to reach the 10 million mark, and only a month and a half to pass 20 million. But the pace of the pandemic seems to have stabilized since mid-July globally, with a million additional cases detected approximately every 4 days.

The pandemic has killed at least 736,828 people around the world since the end of December, according to a report established by AFP on Tuesday at 11:00 GMT. The United States is the most bereaved country (163,465 deaths), ahead of Brazil (101,752 deaths), Mexico (53,003), the United Kingdom (46,526) and India (45,257).

But in proportion to the population, excluding micro-states, it is in Belgium that mortality is highest (852 deaths per million inhabitants), ahead of the United Kingdom (685), Peru (645), 'Spain (611), Italy (582) and Sweden (571).

- Auckland confined -

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has ordered the lockdown for at least three days of the country's largest city, Auckland, after four cases of coronavirus emerged when no domestic contamination had been recorded for 102 days outside facilities intended for isolation or quarantine.

The country had not had a case of local transmission since May 1 and New Zealanders had returned to an almost normal way of life, without any measure of social distancing.

- Concern in French Polynesia -

French Polynesia, so far spared by the epidemic, has seen a sudden increase in the number of positive cases of Covid-19 in three days (43 new cases). The virus has been reintroduced by tourists, but also by civil servants: each year, some teachers and gendarmes are replaced by new arrivals.

The authorities were slow to communicate about these positive cases, angering part of the population on social networks.

burx-jah / mw / avz

© 2020 AFP