Threat to global economic recovery

The Omicron variant "could represent a threat to the global economic recovery", warned Laurence Boone, the chief economist of the OECD, on Wednesday, as this new potentially more contagious and lethal strain of the coronavirus spreads across the world.

The organization says that "the priority remains to ensure that vaccines are produced and distributed as quickly as possible around the world, including booster doses".

Pfizer children's vaccine soon to be released in the EU

Production of the children's version of Pfizer / BioNTech's Covid vaccine will ramp up and doses will be available in the European Union on December 13, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The European regulator had authorized on November 25 the administration to children from five to 11 years of this vaccine, the first to be approved in Europe for this age group.

First cases of Omicron in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, has detected three first cases of the Omicron variant in its territory, health authorities have announced.

On a bus in Liverpool in Great Britain, November 30, 2021 Paul ELLIS AFP

A first confirmed case was also detected in Saudi Arabia, in a Saudi citizen returning from a North African country.

This is the first case of the Omicron variant announced in the Gulf.

Suspension of air bookings to Japan

Japan has asked airlines to suspend all new bookings to its territory for a period of one month, amid fears about the Omicron variant.

These new restrictions announced by the Japanese Ministry of Transport only concern Japanese citizens and foreign residents in Japan, the only ones allowed until then to enter Japanese soil.

International negotiation

The 194 members of the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched a negotiation process with a view to reaching an international agreement to better prevent and fight a next pandemic, in the midst of the 5th wave of Covid.

An interim report is expected in May 2023, followed by conclusions a year later.

Fiji reopens to tourists

Dancers in traditional dress welcomed foreign holidaymakers arriving in Fiji on Wednesday, on the first day of the reopening of the borders of this South Pacific archipelago which ends 20 months of international isolation.

A health worker tests a traveler at a train station in New Delhi on December 1, 2021 Sajjad HUSSAIN AFP

China: focus on the Russian border

A Chinese city on the Russian border, Manzhouli, hit by an outbreak of Covid, has shut down freight rail links.

At the national level, the Ministry of Health reported 91 new patients, a record for a month.

Argentina: a liner refused in a port

A liner with nearly 300 passengers was denied access to the port of Puerto Madryn, in southern Argentina and its passengers ordered to isolation on Tuesday, after the detection of a Covid case on board, on background of fear linked to the new Omicron variant.

- Children with asthma a little more at risk -

Children with asthma are hospitalized more frequently than others as a result of a Covid-19 infection, according to a study conducted in Scotland, published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

But these cases remain infrequent and deaths are extremely rare.

More than 5.2 million dead

The pandemic has killed at least 5,214,847 people around the world since the end of 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources, Wednesday at 11:00 GMT.

Nurses treat a Covid-19 patient in an intensive care unit at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, November 30, 2021 Thomas SAMSON AFP

The United States is the most bereaved country with 780,233 dead, ahead of Brazil (614,681), India (469,247), Mexico (294,246) and Russia (276,419).

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

burx-paj / mw / lch

© 2021 AFP