Ukraine: Rome suspends collaboration on vaccine Sputnik

Lazio, the Rome region, announced on Friday that it was suspending its collaboration with Russia on the Sputnik-V vaccine against Covid due to the invasion of Ukraine.

"We are suspending cooperation regarding Sputnik because science must be at the service of peace and not of war," said Lazio health official Alessio D'Amato, quoted by the daily La Repubblica.

A syringe of the Russian vaccine Sputnik-V against Covid-19, January 31, 2022 in Moscow Natalia KOLESNIKOVA AFP / Archives

Hong Kong: Omicron spreads in prisons

Hong Kong has reported a worsening coronavirus outbreak in its prisons, where hundreds of political activists and protesters are locked up, with more than 200 inmates infected.

The city is in the throes of its worst wave of Covid-19, recording thousands of cases every day, with overburdened hospitals and an overwhelmed government scrambling to isolate every infected person.

Sweden was right not to confine, but should have done more

Sweden was right not to impose a lockdown but should have introduced measures earlier at the start of the pandemic, a commission to assess its heterodox strategy has concluded.

Pedestrians in a shopping street in Stockholm, Sweden on February 4, 2022 Jonathan NACKSTRAND AFP / Archives

The Nordic country stood out at the start of the pandemic with less strict measures than elsewhere, and remained generally more open than elsewhere throughout the pandemic.

“We consider that more imperative measures should have been taken in March 2020 to limit the general spread of the virus. If these measures had been taken, we believe that the virus would have entered fewer retirement homes and that there would therefore be had fewer deaths from Covid-19," said Mats Melin, chairman of the commission of inquiry, appointed in 2020 by the executive.

- More than 5.92 million deaths

The pandemic has officially killed at least 5,925,534 people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources on Friday midday.

Asia is the only region to see its situation deteriorate this week, with 20% more contamination compared to the previous week.

Covid-19: global assessment AFP

In absolute value, the United States is the country with the most deaths (944,831), ahead of Brazil (647,390), India (513,226) and Russia (349,365).

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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© 2022 AFP