South Africa steps up vaccination

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called on the population of South Africa to be vaccinated quickly in the face of the record number of Covid-19 contaminations due to the new Omicron variant detected for the first time in late November in the country.

South Africa last week exceeded the number of 3 million contaminations, for 89,944 deaths on December 3, confirming its place as the country in Africa most affected by Covid-19.

Italy: restrictions for the unvaccinated

Unvaccinated people in Italy will no longer be able to go to the movies, the theater, concerts or major sporting events, under new restrictions that came into effect on Monday.

Covid-19: AFP global report

The only exception to this rule: people recently cured of Covid-19, who also have access to the "health super pass" granted to the vaccinated.

The basic health pass, accessible with a negative test, is however sufficient to go to his workplace.

France: 5-11 year olds at the center of a health defense council

In France, a Health Defense Council must decide on Monday on the strategy to be adopted, in particular a possible opening of vaccination to all children aged 5-11, while the Covid-19 epidemic is blazing throughout the territory and affecting many children.

The number of hospitalized patients, now over 11,000, had not been reached since the end of August and several hospitals have reactivated their "white plan", which allows the deprogramming of non-urgent operations and solicit reinforcements of personnel.

While several European countries are implementing new restrictions, France does not appear on this line, calling for "vigilance" and "responsibility".

Invest in research, warns a British scientist

A next pandemic is likely to be "worse", will warn on Monday the British scientist Sarah Gilbert, co-creator of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine against the Covid-19, calling for investment in research to be better prepared for this eventuality.

"We cannot allow a situation where, after going through everything that we have been through, we find that the huge economic losses we have suffered mean that there is still no funding for pandemic preparedness." , she said in a speech excerpts from which have already been published and which is due to air Monday evening.

More than 5.2 million dead

The pandemic has killed at least 5,253,726 people worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources Monday at 11:00 GMT.

The world facing the coronavirus Simon MALFATTO AFP

The United States is the most bereaved country with 788,364 dead, ahead of Brazil (615,636), India (473,537), Mexico (295,203) and Russia (282,462).

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.

burs-kd-jba / mw / lpt

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