Washington demands "extensive" investigation into the origins of the pandemic, which continues to worsen - France 24

Washington (AFP)

The United States demanded a "clear and thorough" investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, which continues to worsen across the world, while a WHO team awaits the green light on Thursday for start its investigations in China.

"It is imperative that we get to the bottom of things in the appearance of the pandemic in China," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday.

The United States "supports an international investigation which in our opinion must be clear and thorough", she added.

The ten international investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in Wuhan in mid-January.

After a period of quarantine, they must begin their investigations on Thursday in the first city in the world placed in confinement on January 23, 2020.

Washington will "assess the credibility of the investigation report once completed" and tap into "information gathered and analyzed by US intelligence" on the subject, added Jen Psaki.

The WHO field investigation begins as the pandemic is increasingly fatal around the world, with a new daily record of more than 18,000 deaths on Wednesday and variants, much more contagious, which continue to spread, pushing more and more countries to close their borders.

In the vaccine race, one of the manufacturers, Britain's AstraZeneca, found itself at the heart of tensions with the EU on Wednesday.

Day by day, the situation is darkening: the world number of officially recorded cases has exceeded 100 million and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the new variants of the coronavirus continue to spread: the British are is extended to 70 countries and South Africa to 31.

Unheard of since the start of the pandemic, 18,109 deaths were recorded Tuesday around the world, according to an AFP count on Wednesday.

In total, the world has recorded 2.16 million deaths.

"We are fighting the fight of our life", but "we can defeat the virus - and we will defeat the virus" and its variants, assured Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical manager at the WHO for the fight against Covid-19, appeared at the end of 2019 in China.

- Governments under pressure -

This situation puts governments under pressure to find new solutions.

In Britain, the first European country to pass the macabre 100,000 death mark, the government has imposed a hotel quarantine on residents in the UK from 22 countries where variants of the virus "pose a risk" , such as South Africa, Portugal and countries in South America.

Arrivals from these states are already prohibited for people not residing in the United Kingdom.

These travelers will be "taken directly" from the airport to the hotel, said Prime Minister Boris Johnson, accused of having underestimated the extent of the crisis in the spring, confined too late and deconfined too quickly to the been ignoring the advice of scientists.

In France, where the death toll continues to climb (nearly 75,000), the government said on Wednesday that it was studying several scenarios to stop the spread of Covid-19, including that of a new "very tight" confinement, the cover- current fire from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. not being efficient enough.

No ambiguities in Slovakia, which has tightened its confinement regime by now requiring negative tests to be able to leave home.

In Lebanon, more than 220 people were injured Wednesday in violent clashes - for the third consecutive evening - in Tripoli (north) between police and demonstrators protesting against strict containment and the economic crisis.

- Tensions with AstraZeneca -

The massive vaccination campaign remains one of the rare glimmers of hope for a way out of the crisis.

On this subject, the British laboratory AstraZeneca was at the heart of tensions with the European Union.

In question: the announcement of a delay in the schedule of vaccine deliveries.

According to AstraZeneca, vaccine production in UK factories is being reserved for the UK under the deal reached with London, three months ahead of the contract signed with the EU.

What Brussels disputes.

The EU is demanding that AstraZeneca deliver it as agreed with Covid-19 vaccines produced in two British factories, while the group now plans to provide only "a quarter" of the promised doses in the first quarter.

To date, at least 79.2 million doses of Covid vaccine have been administered in at least 69 countries or territories, according to a count made by AFP from official sources on Wednesday at 11:00 GMT.

But vaccination is currently a privilege of countries with "high income" (in the sense of the World Bank), which concentrate 62% of the doses administered in the world while they only cover 16% of the world population.

Michael Ryan, WHO's director of emergency operations, considers that "if we come to a situation in the developed world where perfectly healthy people are vaccinated and front-line workers and vulnerable people (from countries poor) are not, it is just not fair.

© 2021 AFP