Beijing (AFP)

The progression of the Delta variant worries China, where new outbreaks were reported on Saturday in two regions, but also France where opponents of health restrictions are preparing to demonstrate, against the backdrop of a "dramatic" situation overseas.

Two new territories in China, including a city of 31 million inhabitants, present epidemic foci during the most important resurgence of Covid-19 in months in the country, announced the health authorities on Saturday.

Contamination cases have been identified in Fujian province and Chongqing municipality, territories in addition to the four provinces and the capital, Beijing, where Delta variant infections had already been reported.

The authorities in Nanjing (east) ordered all tourist attractions and cultural places not to open on Saturday, due to the increase in national transmissions.

A sign of the authorities' concern in a country that had largely controlled the epidemic, hundreds of thousands of people are now confined in Jiangsu province, of which Nanjing is the capital, while the city has submitted its 9.2 million inhabitants with two screenings.

More severe still, the tourist town of Zhangjiajie, in Hunan province, where a handful of people positive for the coronavirus attended a theatrical performance, confined its 1.5 million inhabitants and closed all tourist attractions on Friday.

Symbol of this "dramatic" situation, a West Indian celebrity, Guadeloupe guitarist Jacob Desvarieux, founding member of the zouk Kassav 'group, died Friday from the Covid-19.

However, the mobilization against the extension of the health pass and compulsory vaccination for certain professions should not weaken on Saturday in France, after having gathered 161,000 people last week and 110,000 a week earlier.

According to polls, a very large majority of French people remain in favor of the implementation of the health pass to enter public places.

- Vaccination "absolutely essential" -

"Vaccination is absolutely essential," French Prime Minister Jean Castex insisted on Friday, when two French overseas territories, Martinique and Reunion, are preparing for a re-containment in the face of the meteoric rise in cases of Covid-19.

A disaster scenario that the French government wants to avoid at all costs in the rest of the country, and against which it has decided to introduce a health pass which will take full effect on August 9.

"I think the authorities are obliged to take drastic measures ... It's a shame to get there, but ... It's our fault," Judge Roger, a passerby interviewed by AFP in Martinique , while only 15% of the population of the Caribbean island is vaccinated.

# photo2

The Delta variant of Covid-19 and its meteoric progression are a warning that should encourage action to be taken quickly before the appearance of more dangerous mutations, recalled the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday.

This variant is as contagious as chickenpox, probably has more serious effects than its predecessors and infected people seem to transmit it as much whether they are vaccinated or not, official US documents have revealed.

- "The war has changed" -

Coming from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the main health agency in the United States, these documents are accompanied by a warning to those responsible: "the war has changed".

Joe Biden seems to be aware of this, who estimated Friday that new health recommendations or restrictions would "probably" be taken in the United States.

# photo3

His administration has significantly raised the tone in recent days in the face of the surge in Covid-19 cases.

Health authorities have recommended that Americans, even vaccinated, wear a mask indoors, in areas where the virus is circulating.

Two large American employers, for their part, took new measures on Friday: Walmart asked all its employees to put the mask back on in areas where the coronavirus is virulent while Disney has made the vaccine compulsory for all its employees.

- In great difficulty -

Tunisia, in great difficulty in the face of a new rebound in the Covid-19 epidemic, received one million doses of vaccines donated by the United States on Friday.

Powerless to stop a new epidemic rebound, with its poor hospitals lacking oxygen, Tunisia is currently in a critical situation.

# photo4

A week after the start of the Olympics, Japan for its part extended the state of emergency in Tokyo until the end of August, extending it to four other departments.

"The infection is spreading at a speed never seen before", especially among young people, warned Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

In Australia, a strict three-day lockdown is due to go into effect on Saturday afternoon in Brisbane, Australia's third largest city, and parts of Queensland state, authorities said.

And in the Philippines, thirteen million people will be confined again as of next week in the region of the capital Manila.

burs / ob / ybl

© 2021 AFP