London (AFP)

The UK has passed the 15 million coronavirus vaccine mark, while Japan has given its first green light to a coronavirus vaccine five months before the opening of the Summer Olympics.

"Today we have reached a milestone in the UK's national immunization program," UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted on Sunday.

- "Fantastic news" -

"NEW FANTASTIC: more than 15 MILLION people have now received their first vaccine against Covid", greeted on Twitter his Minister of Health Matt Hancock.

They bring together people over 70, frontline caregivers, nursing home employees and residents and the most vulnerable patients, i.e. around 15 million people, out of a total population of 66 million in the country of Europe most bereaved by the pandemic.

The government hopes to reopen schools from March 8 and gradually come out of confinement - the third - introduced since the beginning of the year in the face of a more contagious variant, which has given rise to an explosion of the epidemic.

Germany, for its part, has largely closed its borders with the Austrian Tyrol and the Czech Republic in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus variants, causing friction with the European Union.

- "Catastrophe" -

"People who are not among the few permitted exceptions will not be able to enter" on German territory, Home Minister Horst Seehofer warned in the Sunday edition of the daily Bild.

"It's a disaster!" Exclaimed Irene, stopped dead on Sunday at the Kiefersfelden border post, where the police, face masks, now strictly filter the entries.

"I'm from Tyrol, I just wanted to transit through Germany to shorten the journey to Vienna. I have a 15 year old dog in the car and now I'm going to have to spend hours on the little ones. Austrian roads, all without GPS ", she lamented

In New Zealand, nearly two million inhabitants of Auckland, the largest city in the country, are confined from midnight Sunday 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 had been hailed around the world for its highly effective handling of the pandemic.

But in the face of the pandemic, vaccination remains a source of hope.

- "Special green light" -

Japan on Sunday gave its first green light to a vaccine against the coronavirus, that developed by Pfizer, paving the way for the launch of a vaccination campaign five months before the opening of the Summer Olympics.

"Today the Minister of Health gave a special green light to Pfizer's vaccine," the Prime Minister's Office said in a tweet.

The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is to be administered in Japan to 10 to 20,000 healthcare workers as of Wednesday, before expanding vaccination to other healthcare workers and the elderly from April, also using others. coronavirus vaccines.

In Lebanon, a doctor was the first person 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 in Lebanon on Saturday where the medical sector is overwhelmed by the epidemic with 339,122 cases including 3,993 deaths according to the latest official figures.

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

In Africa, Rwanda has started vaccinating groups at high risk of Covid-19 infection, such as frontline medical workers, with limited doses of the vaccine, the health ministry said on Sunday.

Globally, 172.10 million doses of vaccine have been administered in at least 95 countries or territories, according to a count made by AFP from official sources on Sunday at 5.30 p.m. GMT.

The new coronavirus pandemic has killed 2,394,541 people around the world since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP.

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).

© 2021 AFP