Berlin (AFP)

Germany crossed the threshold of one million cases of Covid-19 on Friday and preparations are accelerating to produce the vaccines expected worldwide, especially in India.

Uncertainties remain: the vaccine developed by the British laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford requires "further study," said the group's chief executive on Thursday, after criticism of the results announced.

The UK government said on Friday it had asked the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority (MHRA) to assess the vaccine.

The Russian Sovereign Fund (RDIF), for example, has reached an agreement with Hetero, an Indian manufacturer of generic drugs, to produce more than 100 million doses of the Russian vaccine.

Phase II and III clinical trials of this Sputnik V vaccine are currently underway in India.

Production could start there in early 2021.

"Requests" for more than 1.2 billion doses of this vaccine have been made by "more than 50 countries", according to the RDIF.

It must be produced in Brazil, China or South Korea in particular.

In anticipation of a vaccine in early 2021, Germany is preparing to set up large-scale vaccination centers in hundreds of places: fair halls, concert halls or ice rinks and velodromes.

Berlin's former Tegel airport will become a vast vaccination center by mid-December.

In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has let it be known that he will not be vaccinated against the coronavirus but that the government will organize "immediately" the distribution to those who want it of a vaccine approved by the regulators.

Almost 61 million cases of Covid-19 have been officially counted worldwide since the start of the pandemic, and more than 1.4 million people have died from it.

The countries that have recorded the most new deaths in their latest reports are the United States with 1,333 new deaths, Italy (822) and Brazil (691).

The second wave hits in particular Germany, long considered a good student in the management of the epidemic: 1,006,394 declared cases (+22,806 in 24 hours) and 15,586 deaths (+426) on Friday.

To cope, the country will extend its restrictions until early January, between closing bars and restaurants and restrictions on participants in private meetings.

Having invited its population not to go abroad during the Christmas holidays, in particular to skiing, Berlin will ask the European Union to ban stays in winter sports resorts until January 10 in order to curb the spread of the virus.

But not all Alpine countries are on the same wavelength: Austria plans to open its slopes.

And in France, the stations will be able to reopen during the holidays but the ski lifts will remain closed.

While neighboring Switzerland has reopened its slopes, Italian ski resorts look like dead cities, with their shops, hotels and restaurants closed.

They have little hope of reopening before Christmas.

"It's unfair that we remain closed. Skiing is not like a nightclub, we are alone and in the open. By managing the situation well, we could all be open" in Europe, judge Gianlorenzo Vaudagnotto, owner of two sports shops in Sestrieres (Italy).

- Improvement in France -

The economic consequences are also heavy on restaurateurs and traders closed in many countries.

In Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, several shopping centers were taking advantage of their last hours of operation for Black Friday, before closing three weeks under new government restrictions.

Restaurants and cafes will only be able to offer take-away meals.

Employers' federations have warned that many small businesses could go bankrupt.

In France too, restaurants have set up "click and collect" and delivery, to replenish the cash registers, but above all to keep morale up.

"I don't even make 30% of my usual turnover (...) but it consoles me that the customers are there", declares Raphaël Rego, at the head of "Oka", a starred Brazilian restaurant in Paris.

If the improvement of the situation in France is confirmed, the confinement will be lifted on December 15 to be replaced by a national curfew, with an exception for the evenings of December 24 and 31.

Small businesses will be able to reopen on Saturday, and travel will be permitted within a radius of 20 km and for three hours.

On the other hand, bars, restaurants and sports halls will keep their doors closed, at least until January 20.

After four weeks of confinement, England will also reopen non-essential stores in early December, but the vast majority of residents will continue to live under severe restrictions.

In Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, the streets are empty and the curtains drawn on Friday, the first day of a curfew imposed in the evening and on weekends for 14 days to fight the circulation of the virus.

burx-ybl-cac / stb

© 2020 AFP