Paris (AFP)
New measures, new reports and highlights: an update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.
- Some countries are asking for broader patents than for vaccines alone -
Some sixty countries have asked the WTO for a broader lifting of patents than for anti-Covid vaccines alone, so that it includes the medical tools necessary to fight the pandemic, NGOs said on Saturday.
According to Médecins sans frontières (MSF) and the NGO Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), more than 60 countries have presented to the World Trade Organization (WTO) a revision of their text on the abandonment of intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines and other medical tools.
- Brazil: fine for Bolsonaro after a walkabout without a mask -
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will have to pay a fine because of a walkabout without a mask in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in Maranhao, announced the governor of this state in the northeast of the country.
The law in force provides for a fine ranging from 2,000 to 1.5 million reais (300 to 230,000 euros).
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- Italy passes the 30 million injected doses milestone, demonstration in Switzerland -
Italy officially passed the 30 million doses of anti-Covid-19 vaccine injected on Saturday, and nearly 10 million people are vaccinated, according to government figures.
More than 9.85 million people were vaccinated after receiving two doses, or 16.6% of the 60 million inhabitants of the peninsula.
In Neuchâtel (Switzerland), some 5,000 opponents of anti-Covid restrictions in Switzerland demonstrated calmly on Saturday.
- High excess mortality -
The excess mortality caused by the pandemic is two to three times higher than the deaths officially attributed to Covid-19 since the appearance of the first cases at the end of 2019 in China, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
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In 2020, Covid-19 caused at least three million direct and indirect deaths, while the official death toll attributed to the virus rose to around 1.8 million.
The pandemic has so far caused "about 6 to 8 million" direct and indirect deaths.
- Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines effective against the Indian variant -
The vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca / Oxford are proving to be almost as effective against the Indian variant of the coronavirus as against the English variant, a study by health authorities in England, Public Health England (PHE) said on Saturday.
According to the PHE study, which was conducted between April 5 and May 16, the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic Indian variant disease two weeks after the second dose, compared to 93% of effectiveness against the English variant.
Over the same period, AstraZeneca's serum was 60% effective, compared to 66% against the English variant which had been detected in Kent.
- Moderna will seek authorization in Europe for its vaccine for adolescents in early June -
The American biotechnology company Moderna will file "at the beginning of June" an application for marketing authorization in the European Union for its anti-Covid vaccine for 12-17 year olds, said its boss Stéphane Bancel in the Journal du dimanche .
Considering that "by the summer, all adults wishing to be vaccinated will have received a first dose", Stéphane Bancel estimated that "it will then be necessary very quickly to target adolescents from 12 to 17 years old".
- More than 3,445 million deaths
The pandemic has killed at least 3,445,582 worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to an assessment established by AFP from official sources, Saturday midday.
After the United States (589,670), the countries with the highest number of deaths are Brazil (448,208), India (291,331), Mexico (221,080), and the United Kingdom (127,701).
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These figures, which are based on daily reports from national health authorities, are generally underestimated.
They exclude the upward revisions carried out a posteriori by certain statistical organizations.
By taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, the WHO estimates that the actual toll of the pandemic is "two to three times higher".
burx-ahe / ob
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