Coronavirus: update on the pandemic in the world

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

Record daily infections in Russia

Russia surpassed the symbolic bar of 100,000 daily Covid-19 infections for the first time on Saturday, a record that illustrates the strength of the new wave due to the highly contagious Omicron variant.

This is a record for the ninth consecutive day in the European country with the most deaths in absolute value (330,111).

"Sixth wave" in Iran

A robot makes coffee in a bubble at Taizicheng station created to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Zhangjakou, ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics in China, January 29, 2022 Jewel SAMAD AFP

Iran is facing a new outbreak of the coronavirus due to the Omicron variant, described as a "sixth wave" by the authorities.

Since the start of the pandemic, Iran has officially deplored 132,380 deaths according to the Ministry of Health, but by the very admission of several Iranian officials, this statistic is largely underestimated.

Cases surge in the Solomon Islands

A team of Australian doctors arrived in the Solomon Islands on Saturday to help authorities tackle a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases.

Until last week, this country of 700,000 inhabitants, which had been hermetically cut off from the world at the start of the pandemic, had recorded no deaths and only 31 cases.

The contaminations then exploded and on Friday, the balance sheet stood at nearly 900 cases and five deaths.

France: new demonstrations against the vaccine pass

Opponents of the vaccine pass demonstrated on Saturday in several cities in France, a few days after the entry into force of this device which hardens the health pass in force since the summer of 2021 to encourage anti-Covid vaccination.

In Grenoble, a dozen antivax demonstrators heckled Prime Minister Jean Castex, shouting "Castex in prison", "Assassin", "Shame of France".

Joni Mitchell in turn retires from Spotify

Country singer Joni Mitchell announced on Friday that she was removing her music from Spotify due to Covid-19 "lies" being broadcast on the streaming platform, as Neil Young had done shortly before.

These initiatives aim to protest against the daily podcast of the American host Joe Rogan - the most listened to on the platform in 2021 - accused of having discouraged vaccination among young people and of having pushed for the use of a treatment not authorized, ivermectin.

JO-2022: five Canadians tested positive

Five members of the Canadian delegation, among those who arrived in Beijing for the Winter Olympics (February 4-20), tested positive for Covid-19, the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) announced on Friday, without specifying whether they are athletes, coaches and supervisors.

According to figures communicated by the organizing committee of the 2022 Olympics, out of 5,092 tests carried out on athletes or members of delegations, 23 were found to be positive.

More than 5.64 million dead

The pandemic has officially killed more than 5.64 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, out of more than 368 million confirmed contaminations, according to a report established by AFP on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. GMT.

The United States is the country with the most deaths (882,881), ahead of Brazil (625,884) and India (493,198).

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

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