The International Monetary Fund proposes a $ 50 billion plan to expand vaccination campaigns

Corona deaths in Latin America exceed a million ... and a "disturbing" mutated version has been detected in France

Nurses take care of a Corona patient in the care unit in Bogota, Colombia.

A.F.B.

The "Covid-19" pandemic in the Latin America and the Caribbean region has killed more than a million people since the virus began to spread in the world, and at a time when the International Monetary Fund proposed a $ 50 billion aid plan to boost vaccination campaigns and stop the spread of the epidemic, the French city of Bordeaux detected a focus of tens People have tested positive for a mutated version of the "worrisome" Coronavirus.

In detail, the "Covid-19" pandemic in the Latin America and the Caribbean region has claimed the lives of more than a million people since the Corona virus began to spread in the world a year and a half ago, according to a census conducted by Agence France-Presse based on official data.

In total, 1,001,404 deaths were recorded in the region out of 31,586,075 detected injuries, and about 90% of the recorded deaths in the region are distributed among five countries that account for 70% of its population, namely Brazil (446,309 thousand deaths), Mexico (221,080) and Colombia (8,3233). Argentina (73391) and Peru (67253).

Brazil is the country with the highest number of deaths on the continent, with nearly 2,000 new deaths per day on average this week.

In turn, Mexico, the second most affected country on the continent, has recorded a sharp decline in the level of infection spread in recent months, with an average of 170 daily deaths currently, compared to more than 1,300 at the end of January.

In contrast, the numbers have reached unprecedented levels in Colombia (500 deaths per day) and Argentina (490 deaths per day), and are increasing sharply in less populous countries such as Ecuador (85 deaths per day, + 37% over a week) and Bolivia (53 deaths). Daily, + 44%).

In general, the region, which includes 33 countries and regions, recorded nearly 3,900 deaths per day in the past seven days, a slight increase of 1% over the previous week, and Covid cases are on the rise (142,000 injuries per day on average, + 10% on Over a week).

Latin America and the Caribbean is the second most affected region in the world, after Europe (1,119,433 million deaths) and before the United States and Canada (614,248,000 deaths).

However, unlike North America and Europe, where the rate of vaccination has accelerated strongly, the vaccination of citizens in the Latin America and the Caribbean region is proceeding at a very slow pace, as the vaccination rate in this region reached only 3%.

In Washington, the International Monetary Fund proposed a $ 50 billion plan to end the Covid-19 epidemic, aiming to expand vaccination campaigns around the world, while vaccine companies pledged to provide billions of doses to the poorest countries by the end of next year.

The amount is not comparable to the massive stimulus plans in rich countries, including a US $ 1.9 billion plan recently announced.

For their part, companies that manufacture vaccines against Covid pledged to provide poor countries with billions of doses by the end of the year, during the "World Health Summit" that was held in Rome.

In Britain, there were optimistic news about tests that confirmed that only 15 people had been infected with Covid-19 out of sixty thousand who participated in mass gatherings that took place without spacing or masks in the United Kingdom, according to British health officials.

In France, all adult residents in a district of Bordeaux will be able to receive the vaccine quickly and unconditionally, after monitoring a focus that includes dozens of people who have tested positive for a "worrisome" mutated version of the Corona virus.

And while the intensive examination of residents began in the Bacalan neighborhood in the north of the city, Patrick Dühl, a medical and scientific advisor to the local health authorities, explained that the health authorities had requested to "bring forward the vaccination date for people over the age of 18 without condition" in this neighborhood and its vicinity.

"This mutated version has already been spotted in the country, but it is very rare so far," he said, noting that "a worrisome mutant, as it was, for example, the British and Indian versions, and its lineage is English, but with a mutation.

It is known, and it was also spotted in the Parisian region. ”

The mutant was called "VOC20A / 484Q", and it is derived from the mutant that appeared in Britain, but acquired an additional mutation (ie 484Q) suspected to reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.

Yesterday, data from Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News revealed that 1.61 billion doses of the emerging coronavirus vaccines have been administered worldwide so far.

The world's most recent vaccination rate is estimated at 27.6 million doses per day.

• 1.61 billion doses of Corona vaccine have been given in the world so far.

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