The Pope calls for a temporary lifting of vaccine patents

India is facing the largest epidemic outbreak in the world, with more than 4,000 Corona deaths daily

Family members carry the body of a relative who died of "Corona" in Ahmedabad, India.

A.F.B.

Yesterday, India recorded more than 4,000 Covid-19 deaths within 24 hours, a new record for the first time since the start of the epidemic, while the Pope called for a temporary lifting of vaccine patents to accelerate their spread in poor countries.

In detail, India, with a population of 1.3 billion, which is facing the world's largest epidemic outbreak of the Coronavirus, recorded 4,197 new deaths in one day, bringing the total death toll from the pandemic in this country to 238,270 deaths.

Despite international aid, patients are still dying at the gates of hospitals that have exceeded their capacity.

Experts who have previously expressed doubts about the officially announced numbers, expect India to reach the peak of this epidemic wave by the end of May.

While the situation stabilizes in the main cities of New Delhi and Bombay, thanks to the sending of oxygen supplies and additional hospital beds, the Corona virus is currently spreading rapidly in the country's southern states and rural areas.

And the state of Karnataka, which includes an important technology center in Bangalore, imposed a closure for two weeks from Monday in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.

Yesterday, the southwestern state of Kerala began a week-long lockdown phase.

The epidemiological situation is also deteriorating among India's neighbors, and in Singapore, new restrictions have been implemented as well.

In Japan, the state of emergency imposed again on April 25 in Tokyo and three other provinces will be extended until May 31, while it was scheduled to end next Tuesday.

It will be re-imposed in two other regions.

In Nepal, Corona threatens the mountaineering season, amid worrying indications of its spread, which the government denies.

On the other hand, the World Health Organization on Friday granted emergency approval to the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, made in Beijing, and recommended its use for those over the age of 18.

The organization also believed that children should not start vaccinating as long as all countries do not vaccinate the elderly and people who are more vulnerable than others.

With 789 thousand and 500 injuries recorded daily in the world this week, the index has decreased slightly by 4% compared to last week for the first time in 10 weeks.

The pandemic witnessed a slowdown in other regions of the world, with a decline of 25% in Africa, 24% in Europe, 13% in the Middle East, 12% in the United States and Canada, 12% in Oceania and 8% in Latin America and the Caribbean.

And the gap continues to widen between poor and rich countries in terms of vaccines.

In this context, the Director-General of the World Health Organization urged the rich countries, members of the Group of Seven, once again to give absolute priority to providing vaccines in a fair manner, considering that the current situation is "unacceptable."

"The most important thing we need now is vaccinations and fairness in vaccines," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the end of his bi-weekly press conference, stressing that the epidemic continues to spread, with about 100 thousand deaths recorded per week. And in all parts of the world, US support for lifting patents on anti-coronavirus vaccines continues to generate great interest, and has been welcomed in particular by the United Nations, the African Union, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, France and Russia. As for the European Union, which was opposed to such an initiative, it said, according to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, that it was "ready to discuss" the initiative. Yesterday, Pope Francis supported the lifting of patents for vaccines against "Covid-19", in order to accelerate the distribution of vaccines in poor countries, through a videotaped intervention at the "Fax Live" party.

The Supreme Pontiff condemned “the narrow populism that prevents, for example, the internationalization of vaccines,” and referred to “the spirit of justice that moves us to ensure universal access to vaccines and the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights.”

On the occasion of a European summit in Porto, European Council President Charles Michel announced yesterday that the European Union is ready to discuss lifting patents on anti-corona virus vaccines in the event that "concrete proposals" are submitted.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron called Saturday for the United States to lift all restrictions imposed on the export of vaccines and vaccine components against "Covid-19", which will allow strengthening of global "solidarity".

In Brussels, the European Commission agreed with the Biontec / Pfizer vaccine production alliance to purchase an additional 1.8 billion doses of the emerging coronavirus vaccine over the next few years.

For its part, the German vaccine manufacturer "Biontec", which developed the vaccine against "Corona", announced that "we will continue to provide countries with low or less than average income with our vaccine at a non-profit price."

And «Covid-19» has caused the death of 3,258,595 in the world, and infection of 155,981,070 since the end of 2019. Yesterday, Russia announced that it had recorded 370 deaths and 8,329 new cases of the emerging corona virus (Covid-19), during the past 24 hours.

In Palestine, the Ministry of Health announced yesterday that it had recorded 13 deaths and 491 new cases of the Coronavirus, during the last 24 hours.

The European Union is ready to discuss "concrete proposals" on removing intellectual property from vaccines.

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