Paris (AFP)

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

- Spain: the police taken aback by a party of 25,000 students -

Nearly 25,000 people took part in an outdoor party to mark the start of the school year in a university in Madrid, without respecting anti-Covid instructions, police said on Saturday, admitting to having been taken aback.

According to Spanish media, this is the largest such gathering since the start of the pandemic, when outdoor gatherings were banned.

"There were thousands of people on the campus of Complutense University, about 25,000" in the night from Friday to Saturday, said in a statement the municipal police, specifying that the event seems to have been organized via Whatsapp.

- Over 200 arrests in Melbourne -

More than 200 protesters were arrested and six police officers injured on Saturday in Melbourne, Australia, in violent clashes with protesters opposed to containment.

Melbourne has been confined since the end of July for the sixth time since the start of the pandemic.

The state of Victoria, where it is located, recorded some 500 cases of Covid-19 on Saturday.

Sydney has been confined since the end of June.

During most of the pandemic, Australia recorded one of the lowest contamination rates in the world thanks to its "zero Covid" strategy, consisting of strict border closures, tracing of contact cases and intense campaigns screening.

The authorities are now targeting a 70% vaccination rate to relax the measures.

- Health pass: tenth Saturday of events in France -

For the tenth consecutive week, 180 demonstrations against the health pass were scheduled for Saturday in France.

Some 17,000 demonstrators were expected in Paris and 80,000 to 120,000 in the rest of the country.

Demonstrators protest against the health pass in Nantes, western France, September 18, 2021 Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS AFP

The epidemic is calming down in France so well that President Emmanuel Macron said he was ready Thursday to "lift certain constraints" in "territories where the virus circulates less quickly", without giving a deadline.

- France: the Scientific Council for more screening at school -

The screening for Covid-19 should be systematic and weekly in primary school in France, recommends an opinion of the Scientific Council of September 13 which was not made public, consulted by Le Monde.

Only positive children should then be sent home, instead of the entire class according to the protocol currently in force.

"In middle and high schools, the opinion recommends screening, from the day after the appearance of a proven case, all students of the same level (and not just students of the same class, given the large mixing of adolescents between them). But then it would suffice to isolate only positive students, "says Le Monde.

- Biden organizes a summit on the Covid -

US President Joe Biden will organize a virtual summit on Covid-19 on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly.

Covid-19: 50 million first-time vaccinated in France AFP

Joe Biden has presented the United States as the world leader in the fight for vaccination, a claim greeted with skepticism by some health NGOs.

The country is, however, the largest donor of vaccines, a move Biden compares to the US military's entry into World War II.

- Cuba announces Vietnam approval of its Abdala vaccine -

Vietnam, facing an upsurge in Covid-19 cases, has been the first country since Saturday to approve the emergency use of the Abdala antiviral vaccine developed in Cuba, state pharmaceutical group BioCubaFarma announced.

Besides Abdala, for which Venezuela has already signed a supply contract, Cuba has developed Soberana 02, approved for emergency use in Iran in July, and Soberana Plus.

- More than 4.67 million dead -

The pandemic of the new coronavirus has killed at least 4,678,016 people around the world since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. GMT.

The United States is the country with the most deaths (673,441) ahead of Brazil (589,573 deaths), India (444,529), Mexico (270,538), and Peru with (198,948).

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.

burs-rap-ang / cds / mr / roc

© 2021 AFP