The total deaths due to infection with the Coronavirus around the world on Wednesday evening crossed the threshold of two and a half million, amid good news about the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and the curfew will be partially re-imposed in Jordan and Israel.

According to the World Meter website, the total number of virus deaths around the world has reached two million 500 thousand and 651, with the United States topping the list of countries in the world with 515 thousand and 410 deaths, followed by Brazil with 248 thousand and 646, then Mexico with 181,809.

The site data showed that the total number of HIV infections around the world amounted to 112 million and 850 thousand and 488, while the number of people recovering reached 88 million and 428 thousand and 76.

Vaccination campaigns

On the other hand, the US Food and Drug Administration said that the "Johnson & Johnson" vaccine against the Corona virus is safe and effective with only one dose, confirming that it is highly effective against the two mutated copies that appeared in Britain and South Africa.

She added that an advisory committee to her will meet next Friday to decide on issuing a recommendation to license the emergency use of the vaccine, after it recorded in large-scale laboratory trials the effectiveness against serious cases by 85.9% in the United States, 81.7% in South Africa and 87.6% in Brazil. .

The administration of US President Joe Biden intends to distribute 25 million cloth masks free of charge starting next month, to charitable food banks and local health centers across the country.

According to the plan, two-thirds of the people who receive the services of the medical centers that will distribute the masks are from the poor, 60% from ethnic minorities, and about 1.4 million homeless.

For its part, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca acknowledged the existence of new difficulties in Europe in producing the promised doses for the European Union, indicating that it will resort to production sites abroad to fulfill its promises to deliver vaccines to the European Union in the second half of the year.

Hungary began using the Chinese vaccine, "Sinopharm", to become the first country in the European Union to adopt it, after it was the first country to use the Russian vaccine, "Sputnik-V".

In Africa, Ghana received its first global shipment of vaccines, funded by the Kovacs mechanism for poor countries, where a plane carried 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, produced in India, to Accra airport.

Statistics from the French Press Agency indicate that at least 217 million doses of vaccines have been given in the world, as more than 9 out of 10 doses have been used in countries with "high" or "close to the high" income (as defined by the World Bank), which It includes only half of the world's population (53%).

Funeral of a deceased in South Africa (Reuters)

Lockdown procedures

The Jordanian government decided to re-impose a curfew on Fridays, starting from ten at night on Thursday until six in the morning on Saturday of each week, with the exception of walking on foot for one hour when performing Friday prayers.

It also decided to work with a minimum number of employees, not exceeding 30%, as of Sunday, in government institutions.

Two months ago, the number of daily infections in Jordan was 608, while yesterday it rose to 4,550, and the total reached 376,441 confirmed cases of the virus and 4,611 deaths.

The authorities in Israel will impose a night-time curfew from Thursday evening until Sunday morning on the occasion of Purim (Masquerades), to prevent the residents from mixing.

As a result of the closing decisions, the French "Accor" hotel group incurred a net loss of nearly two billion euros last year, and saw a 60% decline in its activity.

In Britain, Heathrow Airport in London announced that last year it recorded losses of two billion pounds due to the epidemic and its "devastating impact on aviation."

Jenny Harris, deputy chief medical officer in England, said citizens may not need to wear masks during the summer months if cases fall dramatically, but they will likely be necessary again in the winter.