Paris (AFP)

The threshold of 900,000 deaths from Covid-19 was crossed overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, when clinical trials of vaccines are increasing, as in Brazil and Peru, or in the United States, Russia and China , who all want to be the first to have a vaccine, even before the end of the year.

According to a count made by AFP on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. GMT from official sources, 900,052 deaths have been recorded worldwide since the appearance of the first cases in China in December.

Friday September 11, it will be six months to the day that, on March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) qualified the Covid-19 as a "pandemic", an announcement followed by confinements and shutdowns to the 'Mondial economy.

In its last point dated Wednesday, the WHO lists 35 "vaccine candidates" evaluated in clinical trials on humans around the world.

Nine are already at the last stage, or are preparing to enter.

This is "phase 3", where the effectiveness is measured on a large scale on thousands of volunteers.

- Thousands of volunteers -

In Brazil, the governor of Sao Paulo assured that phase 3 clinical trials of a vaccine from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac had proved "extremely positive" and that a large-scale immunization campaign could begin as early as December.

It has been tested on thousands of volunteers in six states of the country, including that of Sao Paulo, the most affected.

In Peru, the clinical trial phase of a potential vaccine from a Chinese laboratory was also launched Wednesday with 3,000 volunteers.

The number of applicants exceeded expectations, with 9,000 volunteers in less than three hours.

A Chinese scientific mission of around thirty people is responsible for coordinating the project of the Chinese group Sinopharm, the results of which are not expected before December.

In the United States, two manufacturers, Pfizer and Moderna, are testing a technology (messenger RNA) that has never yet been proven.

In phase 1 and / or 2 trials, on a few dozen volunteers, both triggered an immune response, but that doesn't guarantee that they will protect against infection.

Moderna and Pfizer have so far said they hope for results before the end of 2020-early 2021, and have started manufacturing millions of doses in advance in case they are conclusive.

- Avoid panic -

Blamed in the new book by journalist Bob Woodward for having minimized the threat of Covid-19, of which he was fully aware, Donald Trump assured Thursday that he wanted to avoid any "panic".

The American president is also pressing today to authorize a vaccine before the presidential election of November 3.

This race for the first vaccine will be done for the time being without the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, partner of the University of Oxford: a possible serious side effect in a participant in clinical trials has led to its suspension.

In Russia, the authorities have started testing the "Sputnik-V" vaccine on 40,000 inhabitants of the capital, the last stage of the trials of this vaccine announced with great fanfare in August.

It was greeted with skepticism around the world, however, due in part to the lack of a final testing phase at the time of its announcement.

The WHO does not expect a generalized vaccination before mid-2021.

Millions of Italian students will return to school next Monday after six months at home, in this country which was one of the first European countries to be hit hard.

As for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the biggest festival of the 7th art in North America, it opens Thursday in a virtual formula, pandemic obliges, forcing the big Hollywood stars to present their films from a distance.

The United States remains the most affected country in terms of both deaths and cases, with more than 190,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University count.

Brazil (more than 128,000 dead), India (73,000) and Mexico (68,000) follow.

burs-dth / ybl

© 2020 AFP