Paris (AFP)

New measures, new reports and highlights: an update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.

- Hong Kong: compulsory vaccination in certain sectors -

Hong Kong officials, teachers and caregivers will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or be tested twice a week at their expense, the chief executive of the financial center announced on Monday.

Hong Kong is one of the rare territories in the world to have sufficient doses for the whole of its population, which remains however reluctant to vaccination (36% of people fully vaccinated).

- Sydney: soldiers to ensure compliance with containment -

Soldiers were deployed on the streets of Sydney on Monday to ensure that containment was respected, while in Brisbane, measures were extended to try to stem an outbreak of the epidemic.

- Iran: new contamination record -

Iran on Monday recorded a new record of Covid-19 infections in 24 hours with more than 37,000 cases, against the backdrop of an accelerating epidemic in the country, which also recorded its highest number of daily deaths ( 411) for three months.

- China: the Delta strain spreads -

Hundreds of thousands of residents were confined Monday in China in the midst of an epidemic rebound, which has seen the Delta strain spread to the four corners of the country and reach the city of Wuhan, the first affected by the Covid-19 epidemic.

China has virtually eradicated the disease on its soil since the spring of 2020 and life has largely returned to normal, despite the persistence of a few outbreaks of contamination - sporadic and until then very localized.

But since the discovery last month in Nanjing (east) of new cases of Covid-19, this focus has quickly spread.

China reported 55 new cases on Monday.

- Vaccine: Pfizer and Moderna increase their prices -

Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna will increase the price of their anti-Covid vaccine delivered to the European Union because they have adapted it to variants, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs said on Monday, confirming information from the Financial Times.

- More than 4.22 million dead -

The pandemic has killed more than 4.22 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Monday at 10:00 GMT.

The United States is the country with the most deaths (613,228), ahead of Brazil (556,834) and India (424,773).

The WHO estimates, taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, that the toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that which is officially established.

burs-frd / ber / bq / sg

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