Paris (AFP)

From Moscow to Washington, the frenzied race of the great powers to find a vaccine for the coronavirus is accelerating amid growing concerns about a second wave of the pandemic in many countries.

To everyone's surprise, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that he had developed the "first" vaccine against Covid-19 and his intention to produce it as early as September even though the tests were not completed.

This announcement was greeted with caution by the World Health Organization (WHO), which recalled that the "prequalification" and approval of a vaccine went through "rigorous" procedures.

In the evening, US President Donald Trump announced a $ 1.5 billion contract for the delivery of 100 million doses of the experimental vaccine from the American biotech Moderna, the sixth contract of this kind since May.

Eight months after the virus appeared in China, no experimental vaccine has yet proven its effectiveness against the coronavirus in successful clinical trials, but at least 5.7 billion doses have already been pre-purchased worldwide .

From Madrid to Paris via New Zealand, Bhutan and Sarajevo, concern is growing about a possible second wave of the coronavirus epidemic, pushing many capitals to sound the alarm bells and strengthen their health measures.

- "Critical situation" in Spain -

"I say it with a form of gravity: if we do not react collectively, we expose ourselves to a high risk of epidemic resumption which will be difficult to control", warned the French Prime Minister Jean Castex.

In the past 24 hours, the number of people diagnosed positive for the virus has increased by 785 new cases in France. In all 10,800 new cases were recorded in one week.

Same concern in Spain, which displays the worst contagion figures in Western Europe - 4,923 new daily cases on average recorded during the last seven days - and where the situation is considered "critical".

"We are just at the point where things can get better or worse (...) it involves doing everything we can and trying to curb the outbreaks before they get worse," he told the AFP Salvador Macip, professor of health sciences at the Open University of Barcelona.

- To Bhutan -

Across the Channel, the time is not for serenity either and the start of the school year promises to be delicate in the United Kingdom, the most bereaved country in Europe with more than 46,000 dead. "I have the impression that in a short time there will be another epidemic and that we will all be sent home," says Alex Bisset, a 17-year-old high school student in Kelso (south-east of Scotland) .

In the Balkans, some 500 residents of Sarajevo have called for an "urgent" response from the authorities to curb the spread of the virus.

In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday announced the containment of the country's retirement homes and did not rule out postponing the September elections.

On Tuesday, she had ordered the re-containment for three days and from Wednesday noon of her country's largest city, Auckland, after the appearance for the first time in 102 days of locally transmitted coronavirus cases.

As for Bhutan, a small kingdom enclosed between India and China, it ordered Tuesday for the first time the confinement of its population after the positive test of a Bhutanese woman returning from Kuwait.

This growing concern contrasts with the scenes observed in recent days in Wuhan, in central China, where the virus appeared in December, with young people swinging their hips at a techno party, food stalls stormed and ubiquitous traffic jams.

- "We lost our Spaniards" -

In total, according to the latest report established by AFP on Tuesday, the coronavirus epidemic has killed at least 736,828 people around the world and infected more than 20,122,700 cases of infection since its appearance in December.

In the United States, the most affected country in the world in absolute terms with 164,480 deaths, more than 53,000 new infections and 1,100 deaths were deplored in 24 hours, according to the count published Tuesday evening by Johns Hopkins University.

In terms of tourism, restaurateurs and hoteliers continue to bear the brunt of the effects of the health crisis.

“We lost our Spaniards, it's dramatic,” laments Stéphane Rives, owner of three hotels at the foot of the medieval French city of Carcassonne.

In Lourdes, for the first time, the sanctuary will celebrate the feast of the Assumption on August 15 - the high point of the year - with a number of pilgrims simultaneously limited to 5,000.

Sporting encounters have had various fortunes. If the Lexington (Kentucky) tennis tournament was able to resume in the United States - behind closed doors - the Frankfurt marathon (Germany) was canceled.

The pandemic, however, did not prevent a Novegian and a Swede, facing travel restrictions between their two countries, from saying "yes" to each other on the demarcation line of a border bridge between the two countries.

"There were no hugs, except between Willy and me. I could not even take my mom in my arms", however lamented the bride Heidi Caroline.

burs / mp / ybl

© 2020 AFP