Paris (AFP)

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

- Indian variant detected in Belgium -

The "Indian" variant of the coronavirus was detected for the first time in Belgium among a group of students who arrived this month from India via the Parisian airport of Paris-Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle, a- we learned Thursday from an official source in Brussels.

A total of 20 Indian students tested positive for the new variant and placed in quarantine in the Flemish cities of Aalst (11) and Leuven (9), where they arrived in mid-April for nursing training.

- Relaxation of restrictions in France -

Reopening of schools with a "very strict protocol" and massive tests, end of daytime travel limits on May 3, gradual reopening of shops and places of culture in mid-May: Prime Minister Jean Castex unveiled on Thursday the first stages of the lifting of restrictions, judging that the peak of the 3rd wave of Covid-19 had passed.

The "great novelty" will be the deployment of self-tests in high schools: 64 million have been ordered for national education staff and then high school students.

The French over 55 years old will be able, "from this Saturday", to be administered the vaccine of Johnson & Johnson against the Covid-19, the fourth available on the territory, for his part, announced the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.

- Daily record of contaminations in India -

India has recorded nearly 315,000 new cases of Covid-19 over 24 hours, a daily toll that no country in the world had previously recorded, while the situation is tense in New Delhi hospitals facing a shortage oxygen.

- AstraZeneca: WHO requests more data -

Vaccine experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was necessary on Thursday to collect more data on the incidence of blood clots in people who received AstraZeneca's anti-covid vaccine outside Europe.

The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization has reformulated its recommendations for precautions regarding the use of AstraZeneca vaccine, in light of data on cases of blood clots in Europe.

The British regulator has identified 168 major cases of blood clots in the United Kingdom in patients who received the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus, including 32 fatalities, for more than 21.2 million first doses administered, according to a report released Thursday.

- Plateau of 2,500 deaths per day in Brazil -

Brazil has entered a very high plateau for a week at around 2,500 daily deaths from Covid-19, after several months of dizzying increases in death and contamination curves.

"The curves have apparently stabilized, but at a very worrying level, with the number of deaths still extremely high," Mauro Sanchez, epidemiologist at the University of Brasilia, told AFP.

In Colombia, the threshold of 70,000 deaths due to Covid-19, including 430 in 24 hours, was crossed Thursday, a new record, while this country is facing a third wave of contagion which threatens to overwhelm its hospitals.

- More than three million dead -

The pandemic has killed at least 3,060,859 people around the world since December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources, Thursday at 10:00 GMT.

The United States is the country with the highest death toll (570,147), followed by Brazil (383,502), Mexico (213,597), India (184,657) and the United Kingdom (127,327).

These figures are globally underestimated.

They are based on daily reports from national health authorities, without including reassessments based on statistical bases.

burs-mlb / roc

© 2021 AFP