Paris (AFP)

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

- AstraZeneca: Guillain-Barré syndrome, "very rare" side effect -

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has listed Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological impairment, as a "very rare" side effect of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine.

According to the EMA, 833 cases of the neurological syndrome have been reported worldwide as of July 31, while more than 592 million doses of Vaxzevria serum, from the AstraZeneca laboratory, have been administered worldwide as of July 25. July.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) lists Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological impairment, as a "very rare" side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 Christof STACHE AFP / Archives

The assigned frequency category is "very rare", that is, occurring in less than 1 in 10,000 people.

- France: the former Minister of Health summoned to court -

The former French Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn, who had resigned in mid-February 2020 at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, is summoned Friday to the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) in Paris with a view to a possible indictment, according to a judicial source.

This summons to the CJR, the only court empowered in France to judge ministers in the exercise of their function, takes place as part of the investigation carried out since July 2020 on how the French government has managed the epidemic.

The former Minister of Health, Agnès Buzyn, September 23, 2020 in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP / Archives

- Vaccine: WHO still opposed to a 3rd dose -

The WHO has once again requested that people vaccinated against Covid-19 do not receive a 3rd booster dose so that the vials are sent to poor countries which have only been able to immunize a tiny part of their population.

"I will not remain silent when the companies and the countries which control the world supply of vaccines think that the poor of the world must be satisfied with the leftovers", launched, angered, its chief executive, the Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Woman receives booster dose injection of Covid-19 vaccine on August 19, 2021 in Pasadena, Calif. Robyn Beck AFP

- Italy: searches of "anti-vaccine" activists -

Italian police raided the homes and computers of eight "anti-vaccine" activists on Thursday, inciting violent action during protests against the health pass.

The group, which communicated via a Telegram messaging under the title "the warriors", called for mass participation in a demonstration planned for the weekend in Rome, but also urged its members to carry out violent actions in their places of residence, according to the report. police.

- Tragic fire in a Covid unit in Macedonia -

Authorities in North Macedonia on Thursday promised to shed light on the origins of an explosion followed by a violent fire that ravaged a Covid-19 unit in this small Balkan state, killing at least 14 people.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev spoke of a "huge tragedy" when he visited the small town of Tetovo in the north-west in the aftermath of the disaster.

Police and firefighters at the scene of a fire in the Covid unit of a clinic in Tetovo, September 8, 2021 in North Macedonia Arbnora MEMETI AFP

- More than 4.59 million dead -

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed at least 4,593,164 people around the world since the end of December 2019, according to a report established Thursday at 10:00 a.m. GMT by AFP from official sources.

The United States is the country with the most deaths (652,675), ahead of Brazil (584,421), India (441,749), Mexico (265,420) and Peru (198,595), according to official figures.

The World Health Organization (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.

burs-jba / ber / clr

© 2021 AFP