Paris (AFP)

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

- WHO expected on variants -

The emergency committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) is due to issue recommendations on Friday in the face of the appearance of more contagious variants of the coronavirus.

The so-called British and South African variants have now been spotted in at least fifty and twenty countries respectively.

- Vaccines -

At least 35.61 million doses of antiCovid-19 vaccines have already been administered worldwide, in at least 58 countries and territories, according to a count made by AFP from official sources Friday at 12:00 GMT.

Israel leads the race in proportion to its population: 23% of Israelis have received at least one dose.

As for the United States, they are first in volume, since they administered 11.15 million doses to 9.69 million people (2.9% of the population).

Elsewhere, 4.3% of the UK population has received at least one dose (2.92 million people).

More than 4.38 million people have received a dose in the European Union (almost 1% of the population).

- United Kingdom: victory for SMEs -

The British Supreme Court ruled in favor of many SMEs who challenged the decision of insurers not to compensate them for forced interruptions of activity suffered because of the pandemic.

This decision, which will have consequences for around 370,000 companies, could generate compensation of up to 1.2 billion pounds.

- 20,000 Chinese in forced quarantine -

China has forcibly quarantined more than 20,000 rural residents in a Covid-19 outbreak, according to state media.

The country, which has largely stemmed the epidemic since the spring, recorded on Friday its greatest number of contaminations since the beginning of March, 144 new patients, a figure which remains however extremely low compared to Europe or the United States.

Most of the new cases are recorded in Hebei (north), the province that surrounds Beijing and where 22 million people are already subject to some form of containment.

- Large-scale tests in Hiroshima -

The department of Hiroshima (western Japan) is preparing to launch the country's first large-scale coronavirus testing campaign in the metropolis of the same name, targeting up to 800,000 people.

Eleven Japanese departments, but not Hiroshima, are currently under a state of emergency that is to last at least until February 7, as Japan experiences its worst wave of infections since the start of the pandemic.

- Nearly two million dead -

The pandemic has killed more than 1.99 million people around the world since the end of December, out of more than 93 million confirmed infections, according to a report established by AFP on Friday at 11:00 GMT.

The threshold of 30 million recorded contaminations has been exceeded in Europe.

The United States is the country with the most deaths (388,705) since the start of the pandemic, ahead of Brazil (207,095 dead) and India (151,918 dead).

But in proportion to their population, these three countries are less bereaved than Belgium, Italy or the United Kingdom.

These figures are globally underestimated.

They are based on daily reports from national health authorities, without including reassessments based on statistical bases.

burs-jah / ber / slb

© 2021 AFP