Paris (AFP)

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

- No death in 24 hours in Paraguay, a first -

For the first time since March 2020, Paraguay recorded no deaths from Covid-19 on Saturday, Health Minister Julio Borda announced on Sunday.

Since the start of the epidemic, 16,188 people have died from contamination by the coronavirus in Paraguay.

A peak in the number of deaths was reached between March and July 2021 in this country of seven million inhabitants.

- Outbreak of cases in Syria -

The Syrian Ministry of Health has started the transfer of patients with Covid-19 in Damascus and Latakia to other provinces, against a backdrop of saturation of hospitals and record rates of contamination, according to an official.

Syria has identified 32,580 cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, of which 2,198 have been fatal, but, since mid-August, this country at war has experienced an exponential increase in the number of contaminations, having jumped by less than 50 to more than 300 daily cases, according to official figures.

- Bolsonaro tested negative -

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tested negative for Covid-19 on Sunday, after three cases had been recorded in his delegation upon returning from the UN General Assembly in New York, the government announced.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the UN General Assembly in New York, September 21, 2021 John Minchillo POOL / AFP / Archives

He did not specify whether the head of state, placed in solitary confinement on his return from New York on Wednesday, will resume his activities on Monday or will be tested for a second time beforehand.

Unvaccinated against Covid-19, Jair Bolsonaro has been seen several times without a mask during his stay in New York.

- France doubles the number of doses given to poor countries -

France will give poor countries 120 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, double what it previously planned, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Saturday.

"The injustice is that in other continents, obviously, vaccination is very late. Because of us, collectively. In Africa, barely 3% of the population is vaccinated - we have to go faster, stronger ", launched the French head of state in a video sequence broadcast during the concert in Paris of the charity Global Citizen.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently criticized developed countries for now offering a 3rd dose of vaccine to part of their population when many poor nations do not yet have wide access to the first.

- Opposition to the health pass on the decline in France -

More than 60,000 people demonstrated on Saturday in France against the health pass put in place by the government to counter the epidemic, the eleventh act of a weekly mobilization, however, in decline for several weeks.

About 63,700 demonstrators, including 7,200 in Paris, were identified by the police for 197 actions organized throughout the country.

They were 80,500 participants a week ago, 121,000 the previous Saturday and 237,000 on August 7, at the height of the mobilization.

- More than 4.7 million dead -

The pandemic caused by the coronavirus has killed at least 4,740,525 worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources on Sunday at 10 a.m. GMT.

The United States is the most affected country both in terms of the number of cases and deaths (687,751 deaths).

The other countries most in mourning are Brazil (594,200 dead), India (446,918), Mexico (275,303) and Russia (203,900).

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

burx-jba-paj / ber / bds

© 2021 AFP