New Delhi (AFP)
Japan, faced with a local upsurge in the epidemic, decided on Friday a new state of emergency especially in Tokyo, three months before the Olympic Games, the biggest international meeting since the start of the pandemic, the organization of which this summer feeds doubts.
India, whose fragile health system is submerged, continues to sink into a major health crisis due in particular to an "Indian" variant whose first detection in Belgium worries Europe.
330,000 new contaminations and 2,000 deaths were recorded there in 24 hours.
Three months before the Olympics, the state of emergency will be applied in Tokyo and in three other departments (Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo), from Sunday and at least until May 11, the Prime Minister announced on Friday. Japanese Yoshihide Suga, who spoke about the increase in variants in new infections.
The slowness of the vaccination feeds in particular doubts about the ability of Japan to organize the Olympics in less than a hundred days, despite the assurance displayed by the organizers, 1.5 million people having received a first dose by Wednesday and only 827,000 being fully vaccinated, less than 0.7% of the population, according to official data.
- "Double mutation" -
The health situation is getting more complicated in India, faced with an exponential increase in cases, with nearly 3.5 million new infections since the beginning of April, in particular attributed to a "double mutation" of the virus and to mass events, such as celebrations. Hindu nun Khumb Mela.
Faced with an oxygen shortage, several hospitals and clinics in New Delhi, confined for a week, appealed to the central government to provide emergency supplies to feed hundreds of patients on ventilators.
Twenty-two patients died Thursday in a hospital, due to an oxygen supply cut-off to ventilators for half an hour, and thirteen others died Friday in a fire at a hospital in the suburbs of Bombay.
The detection of the "Indian" variant in Belgium is worrying in Europe, which is now geared towards easing restrictions.
21 Indian students who arrived in Belgium in mid-April, via the Parisian airport of Roissy, tested positive for this variant and placed in quarantine.
The United States advises against travel to India, even for people who have been vaccinated, and Canada has decided to suspend flights from India and Pakistan for 30 days as of Friday.
And if the United Kingdom has banned travelers arriving from India from entering, France is imposing compulsory ten-day isolation on them.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, told her on Friday that she hoped to be able to reach by July the target set for September of vaccinating 70% of adults in the EU.
A three-day lockdown was decided in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, after the discovery of a Covid case in connection with a hotel welcoming travelers placed in quarantine.
And in Russia, Vladimir Putin announced on Friday that ten days would be public holidays in May in order to fight the pandemic, which is receding very slowly according to official figures.
- "Incredible" success -
The pandemic has killed at least 3,073,969 people worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Friday.
Vaccination campaigns are beginning to bear fruit, as in the United States where President Joe Biden on Wednesday hailed the "incredible" success of injecting 200 million doses of vaccine before the 100th day of his mandate.
The US health authority is expected to rule on the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Friday, which is currently suspended in the United States after the appearance of rare serious cases of blood clots.
If vaccination is slower on the Old Continent, Germany announced Thursday that it plans to have access to vaccines for all adults no later than June.
Berlin plans to buy 30 million doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik, which has yet to receive the green light from Europe.
She said she was ready on Friday to support a lawsuit against AstraZeneca for its failures on deliveries of doses of its anti-Covid vaccine to the EU but felt that the priority should be to guarantee these deliveries.
In Hungary, while more than a third of its population has already received at least one dose, the authorities are preparing to reopen the terraces of cafes and restaurants.
In Italy, from Monday, restaurants will also be authorized to open to the public for lunch, and also for dinner for the first time since the end of October, but only in the open air and in areas classified as "yellow", presenting the risk of contagion on weaker.
In France, a gradual easing of measures will begin on May 3.
The ban on moving more than ten kilometers from home will be lifted.
The reopening of non-essential businesses is expected to take place around mid-May.
© 2021 AFP