Paris (AFP)

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

- Germany partially closes its borders -

Germany partially closes its borders with the Czech Republic and Austrian Tyrol on Sunday in an attempt to contain the spread of the very contagious variants of the coronavirus.

An important device of a thousand police officers is mobilized to ensure "fixed control points" at the borders.

The Deutsche Bahn railway company has suspended its connections with these areas.

Germany, at the cost of drastic restrictions for many weeks, has managed to lower the incidence rate of the virus and limit the rise in contamination.

However, she remains very wary of the threat of variants.

Tyrol, isolated since Wednesday by the government in Vienna, is considered the largest European focus of the South African variant.

In the Czech Republic, a country that is among the main affected in Europe, with more than a million cases declared for less than 11 million inhabitants, three cantons, including two adjoining the German border, were placed under bell on Thursday due the prevalence of the British variant.

- 3 days of confinement in Auckland -

Nearly two million residents of Auckland, the largest city in the country, are confined from midnight Sunday evening for three days, after the discovery of a new source of contamination with the coronavirus.

Schools and businesses will remain closed on Monday, except for businesses deemed "essential", Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered.

Three members of the same family tested positive over the weekend, generating concern in the country which has been internationally hailed for its highly effective management of the pandemic.

New Zealand had recorded several cases of Covid-19 three weeks ago, ending a period of over two months without any contamination.

- Variants in St Barthélémy and Guyana -

Variants of Covid-19 have been identified in Saint-Barthélemy and Guyana, the day after the location of the first cases in Guadeloupe and Saint-Martin, the authorities announced.

- Lebanon: kick-off of vaccination -

A doctor was the first Lebanese to receive the anti-Covid vaccine in Beirut, kicking off the vaccination campaign in a country plagued by serious health, economic and political crises.

Some 28,000 doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine arrived Saturday in Lebanon where the medical sector is overwhelmed by the epidemic with 336,992 cases including 3,961 deaths according to the latest official figures.

In early February, the country began easing containment after more than three weeks of restrictions.

- G7: Johnson will call for union -

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will call for a common global approach to defeat the "common enemy" of the coronavirus at the first - virtual - meeting of the G7 under the British presidency next Friday.

G7 leaders will work on the plan announced last year at the United Nations to prevent future pandemics, according to Downing Street.

- Nearly 2.34 million dead -

The pandemic of the new coronavirus has killed at least 2,394,541 people around the world since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Sunday at 11:00 GMT from official sources.

After the United States (484,149 dead), the countries with the most deaths are Brazil (238,532) Mexico (173,771), India (155,642) and the United Kingdom (116,908).

The number of victims is globally underestimated.

It is based on the daily reports of the national health authorities but excludes the revisions carried out a posteriori by statistical organizations.

© 2021 AFP