The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in France continues to decline, according to data from Public Health France published on Saturday.
Encouraging figures which make it possible to gradually find a semblance of life from before, like the 5,000 spectators who attended a concert in Indochina on Saturday evening which also served as a study on the risks of contamination.
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The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in French hospitals continued to decline on Saturday.
An improvement in the situation which pushes many French people to take advantage of their newfound freedom.
Some 5,000 privileged people were able to attend an Indochina concert on Saturday evening at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris.
A concert-test which should allow a study on the risks of contamination.
In addition, the Indian variant continues to worry the authorities.
Rather reassuring news: the Pfizer vaccine produces antibodies which are capable of neutralizing it, however with a "slightly reduced effectiveness", according to a study by researchers at the Institut Pasteur.
The main information to remember
Hospital pressure continues to drop in France
5,000 people attended the Indochina test concert at the AccorHotel Arena
The Pfizer vaccine effective against the Indian variant, but in a "slightly" reduced way
Vietnam has discovered a new "hybrid" variant
Hospital pressure continues to decline
The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized continued to decline slowly on Saturday, with less than 17,000 people hospitalized, including 3,028 in critical care, according to data from Public Health France.
Currently 16,847 patients with the coronavirus are received in French hospitals (against 17,272 on Friday), including 334 in the last 24 hours (539 the day before).
A week ago, 19,765 Covid patients were hospitalized.
Critical care services, where the most seriously ill Covid-19 patients are treated and which include resuscitation beds, recorded 3,028 patients (3,104 the day before), about 500 less than a week ago.
These services admitted 93 new Covid patients (155 the previous day).
5,000 people at the Indochina test concert
"It's been so long": 5,000 spectators danced, Saturday, to the hits of the French group Indochine, with mask but tight in the Parisian arena of Bercy, during a concert coupled with a scientific study eagerly awaited by a sector severely affected by the Covid-19.
The study should make it possible to demonstrate that if they are tested negative upstream, the spectators are not more likely to be contaminated at the concert than in normal times.
# AmbitionLiveAgainpic.twitter.com / Its4C2rs0J
- Indochina (@indochinetwitt) May 29, 2021
"We want to live ... even stronger".
Saturday evening, the words of the song "Marilyn" had a particular resonance for the crowd, deprived of live for months, to whom Nicola Sirkis asked to "make noise" for the caregivers, the researchers.
And to pay tribute "to all the deaths of the Covid".
Indochina, preceded by DJ Etienne de Crécy, returned to the stage for the first time after having to postpone for a year (to spring-summer 2022) the tour of his 40 years, because of the health crisis.
The Pfizer vaccine effective against the Indian variant, but in a "slightly" reduced way
The Pfizer vaccine produces antibodies that are capable of neutralizing the Indian variant of the coronavirus, however with "slightly reduced efficiency" in the laboratory, according to a study by researchers at the Institut Pasteur. In people vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, the antibodies present in their blood serum are effective on the English variant, but slightly less effective against the Indian variant studied, according to this work published on the pre-publication site BioRxiv. Despite "a slightly reduced efficacy, according to laboratory tests, the Pfizer vaccine is probably protective", reassures Olivier Schwartz, co-author of the study and director of the virus and immunity unit at the Institut Pasteur (Paris).
The researchers also tested the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine on these variants, but only from the serum of people vaccinated with a single dose of the British vaccine, having "no access to samples of vaccinated with two doses" at the time of the study, said Olivier Schwartz.
The results of the study, carried out with French university hospitals, show that a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, an effective vaccine against the English variant, "works very little against the Indian and South African variants".
A single dose of this vaccine therefore appears "little or not at all effective" against the Indian variant, underlines the researcher.
Vietnam has discovered a new "hybrid" variant
Vietnam has discovered a new variant of Covid-19, which is transmitted rapidly in the air, and is a "hybrid variant combining the Indian and British virus", state media reported on Saturday. The news came as the country faces a new wave of contaminations in more than half of its territory, including industrial zones and major cities, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnam had until recently been very little affected by the virus.
The communist country was even applauded last year for its vigorous response to the virus, with mass quarantines and a strict tracing and isolation system.
But the current wave of infections worries the population, and the authorities have responded by severely limiting movement and activity.
Cafés, restaurants, hairdressing salons as well as tourist or religious sites have been closed in several regions of the country.
More than 3.5 million deaths worldwide
The pandemic of the new coronavirus has killed at least 3,524,960 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 from from official sources Saturday at 10am GMT.
The United States is the most affected country in terms of both deaths and cases, with 594,302 deaths for 33,240,431 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University count.
After the United States, the most affected countries are Brazil with 461,057 deaths and 16,391,930 cases, India with 322,512 deaths (27,729,247 cases), Mexico with 223,072 deaths (2,408,778 cases), and the United Kingdom with 127,768 dead (4,477,705 cases).