Corona ... AstraZeneca describes its vaccine as safe and effective after extensive experiences, and France looks forward to returning to normal life soon

The "AstraZeneca" group announced that its vaccine against the Corona virus - which has been suspected of causing blood clots - is highly safe and effective after extensive trials in the United States, Chile and Peru, and while a French official expected life to return to normal during the summer, India witnessed the highest number of infections. With the virus months ago.

In a statement issued today, Monday, the British group announced that the results of tests that included 30,000 volunteers showed that the vaccine developed in cooperation with the University of Oxford (Oxford) has proven that it is 79% effective in preventing symptoms from appearing on the infected.

She said that the experiments also showed that its vaccine is 100% effective against severe and critical cases due to infection with the Coronavirus.

AstraZeneca confirmed that no blood clots occurred during the tests that were conducted in the three countries.

The announcement of the results paves the way for a request to the US Food and Drug Administration to approve the emergency use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

And more than 10 European countries - including France, Germany and Italy - have temporarily suspended the use of the "AstraZeneca-Oxford" vaccine, following reports that adults who received the vaccine had blood clots, but they later resumed its use in the vaccination campaigns underway since late December. the past.

And 50 countries agreed to use this vaccine, and scientists were waiting for the results of experiments conducted in the United States to clarify the possible symptoms of it.

In Asia, despite recent reports on its safety, many countries have accelerated the introduction of the "AstraZeneca-Oxford" vaccine, which is among the first and cheapest vaccines to be developed and mass-produced.

Globally vaccination campaigns

With regard to vaccination campaigns, data published by "Bloomberg" news agency showed that more than 447 million doses of anti-corona virus vaccines have been given around the world.

Meanwhile, the Russian sovereign wealth fund announced today, Monday, an agreement to produce 200 million doses of the Russian "Sputnik-V" vaccine.

For his part, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace warned that the European Union's attempts to prevent exports of the Corona virus vaccine to his country could lead to what he described as counter-productive.

The minister said in an interview with British Sky News that the European Commission will suffer serious damage to its reputation if it bans the export of the vaccine.

Ben Wallace's comments come within the framework of an ongoing dispute between the European Union and the companies that manufacture Corona vaccines, after the European Union accused AstraZeneca of failing to fulfill its contract to supply the vaccine to the Union.

Life returns to normal

Meanwhile, the director of the vaccination campaign in France, Alain Fischer, said that he expects life to return to normal in his country during the next summer or autumn, thanks to the acceleration of the vaccination campaign against the Corona virus.

On Saturday, France witnessed 35 thousand new infections, and more than 4 thousand patients in intensive care, and the country is living under restrictions to contain the epidemic.

The French authorities said that 8.5 million citizens have been vaccinated so far.

In Europe, too, Germany today recorded more than 7 thousand new infections and 50 deaths.

This comes amid fears of a third wave of Corona virus in Europe, in light of the increasing numbers of infections and deaths.

In the context, the British Minister of Care Helen Wheatley warned today that the British will have to wait before booking to spend their vacations abroad, especially due to the increase in Coronavirus infections in many European countries.

In other regions of the world, India recorded today, Monday, about 47 thousand new infections with the Coronavirus, the highest toll since early November, and 212 new deaths, the largest number of deaths since early January.

Also in Asia, the Philippines today counted a record number of more than 8,000 new cases of the virus.

In turn, Pakistan today recorded about 3,700 new cases of the virus and 20 deaths, and the Sindh province is the most affected by the epidemic.

While China counted 7 new cases of the virus, all coming from abroad, South Korea recorded 415 cases, and one death.

Globally, the number of HIV infections today approached 124 million, according to the latest data published by the "World Meter" website.

While the deaths exceeded two million and 728 thousand, the number of people recovered exceeded 99 million and 821 thousand, according to the same source.

Vaccination campaign in Palestine

In Palestine, the vaccination campaign against the Corona virus was officially launched yesterday, Sunday.

Medical workers and the elderly were among the leading recipients of the vaccine.

The vaccination campaign comes at a time when Palestinian hospitals are suffering from the continuing crisis of not having beds inside, in light of the high cases of infection and death from the Coronavirus.