Washington calls for a "clear and in-depth" investigation

The "World Health" team begins its mission to trace the origin of "Corona" in China

A team of "Health Organization" experts leaves quarantine in Wuhan, China, to start their field investigation.

EPA

Yesterday, a team of WHO experts left quarantine in Wuhan, China, to start their field investigation into the origin of the "Covid-19" pandemic, at a time when Washington called for a "clear and in-depth" investigation into the sources of the disease that continues to spread throughout the world.

After undergoing a two-week quarantine in a hotel in Wuhan, central China, where the epidemic appeared more than a year ago, more than 10 members of the World Health Organization team took a bus that took them to another facility of a large international organization.

And the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that they will be able to participate in seminars and make field visits.

This visit is considered extremely sensitive for the Chinese regime, which is keen to remove all responsibility for it in the epidemic crisis.

The White House spokeswoman, Jane Saki, said yesterday that the United States supports "an international investigation that, in our opinion, must be clear and in-depth," noting that Washington "will assess the credibility of the investigation report upon its completion."

China received this warning badly, rejecting "political interference" that might endanger "the search for serious scientific results."

The investigation begins at a time when the epidemic becomes more and more deadly, with a new daily record number of deaths reaching more than 18,000 the day before yesterday.

In the same context, the Chinese National Health Commission announced that its director, Ma Xiaoyi, exchanged views on ways to prevent the Corona virus pandemic and cooperate in tracking the virus with the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a phone call the day before yesterday.

Xiaoyi told Tedros that China is willing to continue supporting the work of pandemic prevention and response, according to Bloomberg News.

For his part, Tedros said that the two sides will make joint efforts in terms of cooperation in the work of tracking the virus in China.

In total, the epidemic has killed at least 2.17 million people and infected more than 100.8 million people since late December 2019, according to a toll prepared by "France Press" yesterday.

Yesterday, the Regional Director of the World Health Organization in Europe, Hans Kluge, considered it "too early to reduce" health measures in Europe.

According to the organization, the new mutated versions of the virus do not stop spreading: the British version has become widespread in 70 countries, while the South African version is in 31 countries.

This situation puts governments under pressure to find new methods to curb the spread of the virus.

In the United Kingdom, the first European country to exceed the threshold of 100,000 deaths due to disease, the government imposed a stone in the hotel on arrivals from 22 countries, where mutated versions of the virus pose a "threat", similar to South Africa, Portugal and countries in South America.

Germany intends to sharply reduce air traffic with Britain, Brazil, South Africa and Portugal, which it considers the most affected by the new mutated versions of the emerging corona virus.

In France, where the number of deaths is close to 75 thousand, the government is studying several scenarios to stop the spread of the epidemic, among them a new "very strict" lockdown.

Yesterday, French government spokesman Gabriel Atal said: "Nothing is excluded," explaining that decisions will be taken "at the end of the week."

In Belgium, a scientific report leaked to the media stated that the British metamorphosed version could represent 90% of new infections by month.

The Belga News Agency quoted virologist Stephen Van Kecht, a spokesman for the health authorities, as saying that this study "is based on limited data, and we must therefore consider these results as a worst case scenario."

In Russia, the authorities in Moscow have eased restrictions and allowed restaurants and nightclubs to open their doors until after 23:00, unlike other countries who have tightened restrictions.

And large-scale vaccination campaigns remain a rare spring of hope.

The British laboratory, AstraZeneca, is facing tension with the European Union due to announcing the delay in the delivery schedule of vaccines.

According to "AstraZeneca", the production of vaccines in British laboratories is intended for Britain, according to an agreement concluded by the company with London, which Brussels condemns.

The European Union demands "AstraZeneca" to deliver it as it was agreed upon vaccines produced in British manufacturers, at a time when the group currently expects not to deliver, in the first quarter, only "a quarter" of the agreed doses.

Yesterday, the German Vaccination Committee recommended that the AstraZeneca vaccine be given only to people under the age of 65 due to lack of data related to older people.

She pointed out that “the currently available data are insufficient to assess the effectiveness of vaccines” for people over the age of 65 years.

At least 82 million doses of anti-"Covid-19" vaccines were given in at least 70 countries and regions, according to a census prepared by "France Press" yesterday.

A study published by the Lowy Research Institute in Sydney yesterday, showed that Brazil is the worst country in terms of managing the Covid-19 crisis, while New Zealand is the best in the world.

"Pfizer" and "Biontech" confirm the effectiveness of their vaccine against the two mutated versions

Yesterday, Pfizer and Biontech announced, in a statement, that their vaccine against "Covid-19" preserves the bulk of its effectiveness against the two main mutations of the emerging corona virus in Britain and South Africa.

The two companies said, in the statement, that "slight differences" were detected in tests comparing the original virus and the two new mutated versions that "will not likely lead to a significant decrease in the effectiveness of the virus."

The statement said that the tests in the laboratory "did not indicate the need for a new vaccine to deal with the emerging variants."

At the same time, he stressed that the coalition "continues to monitor the emerging variables and is ready to respond" if one of these mutations is resistant to the vaccine.

He added that "(Biontech) and (Pfizer) believe that the flexibility of the (MNA) vaccine platform owned by (Biontech) puts it in a position to allow it to develop new variants of the vaccine if necessary."

Paris - AFP

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Germany plans to drastically reduce air transport with Britain, Brazil Movement, South Africa and Portugal.

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