Paris (AFP)
Half of adults in Europe, or 200 million people, are vaccinated against Covid-19 but the meteoric progression of the Delta variant threatens to hinder the return to normalcy on the continent.
"So far there have been 200 million people who are fully vaccinated in the European Union," the European Commission said on Thursday.
This corresponds to "54.7% of adults" fully vaccinated and the Commission has set itself the target of 70% of adults vaccinated this summer.
A race against time is underway with the Delta variant, identified for the first time in India, which is causing a new wave of contaminations in many countries, especially in Europe, and slowing down the expected recovery, for example creating labor shortages. work in the United Kingdom.
"The recovery of the euro area economy is on track," said European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.
"But the pandemic continues to cast a shadow, especially as the Delta variant is a growing source of uncertainty."
In Great Britain, hundreds of thousands of contact cases are forced to isolate themselves for ten days, crippling the economy: empty supermarket shelves, London Underground line interrupted for lack of sufficient personnel, intervention time for security forces. extended font.
The British government, which has lifted almost all the restrictions in the midst of the explosion of contaminations, is now under pressure to relax the isolation rules, so as not to halt the distribution.
Very contagious, the Delta variant has become the majority in a large part of Europe and in the United States.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel referred to an "exponential growth" in the number of new cases, seeing it as "a worrying dynamic": she envisages "a doubling in less than 2 weeks" in the number of new infections.
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"Every vaccination counts. Every vaccination is a step, a small step, towards a return to normality for all", she added.
Since mid-July, the daily number of new cases in Germany has averaged over a thousand and reached 1,890 cases on Thursday.
- "Do not stigmatize young people" -
A figure much lower than France, caught in a "fourth wave", according to Prime Minister Jean Castex, a few weeks after having eased the restrictions.
The daily number of new cases has climbed to the highest since the beginning of May: Public Health France reports 21,909 contaminations in 24 hours, unheard of since May 5.
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The positivity rate also continues to rise, standing at 3.2% (over seven days, at D-3), i.e. half a point increase in a single day.
"It is true that the epidemic is resuming, especially in terms of incidence among young people. The whole point is that it is not transmitted to the elderly," said government spokesman Gabriel on Thursday. Attal, however, assuring that he does not want to "stigmatize the young people who have drooled over it for a year and a half".
In France, as in other countries where vulnerable people have already been vaccinated, the number of hospitalizations or deaths is not increasing, however.
To speed up the epidemic, the French government is trying to forcefully pass a bill that will make the vaccination of caregivers mandatory and impose in cafes and restaurants a health pass, already in force in cinemas and theaters. .
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If this prospect has precipitated hundreds of thousands of French people in the vaccination centers, it also provokes some demonstrations of opponents.
Thursday evening, Italy in turn announced the establishment of a health pass, which will be necessary from August 6 to attend closed places such as restaurants.
Faced with this rapid spread of the Indian variant, governments are betting on vaccination, even if it means making it compulsory for the health professions.
The thousands of employees of New York's public hospitals will soon have to be vaccinated against Covid or be tested every week.
In Greece, compulsory vaccination of caregivers is in the process of being adopted in parliament, but is also causing protests.
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For its part, Portugal wants to vaccinate 12-17 year olds by the next school year.
- Reduced life expectancy -
A year and a half after China reported the first cases of coronavirus, we are seeing the dramatic consequences of this global epidemic, which has already killed more than 4.1 million.
The life expectancy of Americans fell by a year and a half in 2020, the biggest drop since World War II, according to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), which largely attributes the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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And the pandemic will have a "long-term and far-reaching" impact on the mental health of populations, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
"From anxiety linked to the transmission of the virus, to the psychological impact of confinements and self-isolation, to the consequences linked to unemployment, financial difficulties and social exclusion, (...), everything the world is affected in one way or another, "the WHO noted.
The origins of the pandemic remain to be elucidated.
China criticized Thursday the request of the WHO to continue on its soil the investigation into its origins, seeing it a "lack of respect for common sense and an arrogance towards science".
Beijing has once again denied the theory of a laboratory leak in Whuan, a hypothesis that has come back in force in recent months.
© 2021 AFP