United States: tighter control of international travelers

The United States will require from "the beginning of next week" that all foreign travelers entering the territory test negative in the day before departure, in addition to being vaccinated, the White House said Thursday. .

The administration of President Joe Biden has unveiled a series of measures intended to boost vaccination and deal with the spread of Covid-19 during the winter, as a first case of the new Omicron variant has just been detected in the country.

Germany: towards a new turn of the screw

Germany will decide on additional restrictions on Thursday against the virulent new wave of infections, including possible closings of bars and other public places.

After a first round of discussions Tuesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel, her announced successor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of the 16 regions of the country are meeting again to refine their arsenal of measures, before a vaccine obligation which is now consensus.

France: first case of Omicron in metropolitan France

A first case of the Omicron variant has been confirmed in a man residing in Seine-et-Marne, near Paris, detected on his return from a trip to Nigeria, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) announced on Thursday.

A vaccination center in Lisbon, December 1, 2021 PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA AFP

His wife, who accompanied him, has tested positive for Covid-19 and sequencing is underway to verify whether it is also the Omicron variant, which until now had only been identified in France on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean.

The United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have joined the growing number of countries that have confirmed at least one case of the new Omicron variant.

Expedited review of the Valneva vaccine

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Thursday the launch of the accelerated review of the anti-Covid vaccine by the Franco-Austrian laboratory Valneva, with which the European Commission has reached an agreement of up to 60 million doses of here in 2023.

UK approves GSK treatment

The British Medicines Agency (MHRA) announced on Thursday that it had authorized GlaxoSmithKline's monoclonal antibody against the coronavirus in people at risk, the British laboratory stressing that the treatment remained active against the new Omicron variant.

Developed in partnership with the Californian laboratory Vir Biotechnology, sotrovimab is the second treatment against the coronavirus approved in one month by the United Kingdom, after molnupiravir from the American laboratory Merck.

A woman undergoes a test for Covid-19 in Erenhot in Inner Mongolia (China) on December 2, 2021 STR AFP

UN: emergency aid weighted down by the Covid

The UN will need at least $ 41 billion in 2022 to rescue 183 million of the most vulnerable people in a world ravaged by Covid-19, conflict and climate change, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations (OCHA).

A total of 274 million people are expected to need emergency assistance next year, a 17% jump from an already record 2021.

More than 5.2 million dead

The pandemic has killed at least 5,223,072 million people worldwide since the end of 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources Thursday at 11:00 GMT.

The United States is the most bereaved country with 782,100 dead, ahead of Brazil (614,964), India (469,724), Mexico (294,428) and Russia (277,640).

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.

© 2021 AFP