Washington advises against travel to Germany and Denmark

US authorities have advised Americans to avoid traveling to Germany and Denmark, hit hard by the new wave of the pandemic spreading in Europe.

The State Department issued two bulletins under Level 4, the highest level of warning, its level of alert for these two countries.

The announcement comes as Europe struggles to stem a new wave of the pandemic, amid sometimes violent protests against health restriction measures.

At least 21 arrests have taken place in the Netherlands after a fourth night of protests, bringing their total to more than 150 according to police since violence erupted.

Jean Castex positive, his Belgian counterpart in quarantine

French Prime Minister Jean Castex tested positive Monday evening for Covid-19, prompting the quarantine of his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo and four of his ministers.

All gathered in Brussels in the morning for a meeting on the subject of security.

Mr Castex, 56, had learned on Monday afternoon that one of his 11-year-old daughters had tested positive and had immediately been tested himself.

Last week, the spokesperson for the French government had to defend Mr. Castex and the Minister of the Interior criticized following a video showing them shaking hands, without masks, in defiance of barrier gestures.

The French executive between firmness and dialogue in Guadeloupe

The French government wanted to stand firm on Tuesday in the face of the violence that continues in Guadeloupe despite police reinforcements, while offering a "forum for dialogue" to respond to the social crisis linked to the anti-Covid vaccine obligation.

The challenge of caregivers and firefighters started on November 15 turned into a social crisis punctuated by violence in this French department of the Caribbean, where a third of the population lives below the poverty line, and where the situation was still considered "very difficult "by the Minister of the Interior.

"The reestablishment of public order is the prerequisite for any discussion of course," he said while Minister of Overseas Deplored the shooting against the police.

The government is committed to providing professionals affected by the vaccination obligation with vaccines against Covid-19 without messenger RNA.

Vaccination fraud in Belgium

Belgian justice is investigating a doctor suspected of having recorded 2,000 false anti-Covid vaccinations, the "most serious" fraud to date in the management of the pandemic in Belgium, according to the Walloon Minister of Health.

The practitioner is suspected of having given these patients a health pass allowing them to escape the restrictions in force by being paid for injections that did not take place.

Vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 in Israel

Israel began its anti-Covid vaccination campaign for children aged five to eleven on Monday evening, becoming one of the first countries, after the United States, to lower the age of access to the vaccine to curb the pandemic.

More than 5.15 million dead

The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 5,156,563 people around the world since the end of 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources on Tuesday at 11:00 GMT.

The United States is the most affected country, with 772,344 deaths, ahead of Brazil (612,782), India (466,147), Mexico (292,524) and Russia (266,579).

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, that the global toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that calculated from official figures .

burx-jba / mw / clr

© 2021 AFP