Coronavirus: the state of the world facing the pandemic from June 29 to July 5

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The pandemic has killed more than 530,000 people worldwide since the onset of the disease in December in China, according to a report by AFP on Saturday evening. Over 11 million cases of infection have been diagnosed in 196 countries and territories.

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The Covid-19 pandemic "  is far from over  " and even "  accelerating  ", warned the World Health Organization (WHO), calling on the world to act now without waiting for a vaccine. WHO recorded a record increase in the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus contaminations worldwide this Saturday, with an increase of 212,326 cases in 24 hours. The largest increases were seen in the United States, Brazil and India.

Countries where the pandemic is receding

The death toll in France has stagnated below 30,000, with fewer than 20 deaths every 24 hours. Judicial information will be opened by the Court of Justice of the Republic following dozens of complaints filed by individuals who accuse Edouard Philippe, Agnès Buzyn and Olivier Véran , namely the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Health who were in post at the time of the crisis, for not having done what was necessary to protect the French. These complaints to the CJR had started to be filed a few days after the confinement began in mid-March. They come from individuals, doctors, associations, or even prisoners. The complainants denounce, as the case may be, facts of "  endangering the life of others  ", "  manslaughter  ", "  failure to assist a person in danger  " or failure to take timely action to stem the pandemic.

Massively awaited by English people very attached to their pubs, closed during the three months of confinement, the "Super Saturday" had aroused concerns, the police expecting an activity as important as on New Year's Day. Thousands of people gathered on Saturday night in pubs, restaurants and bars in England and Northern Ireland , as the restaurant business reopened for the first time since March . Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was "  absolutely vital that everyone abides by the rules on social distancing,  " when the pandemic killed more than 44,000 people in the country. On Sunday morning, however, many photos of Britons, happily alcoholic and careless about health regulations, flooded social networks and newspapers.

Cuba operates its deconfinement with caution and always with some restrictions. Unlike its American neighbors where the coronavirus is still wreaking havoc, the Caribbean island considers the pandemic under control . The capital therefore began its deconfinement for the greatest relief of the Cubans.

Countries where the pandemic returns

The appearance of new foci of contamination, mostly located in closed places, are more and more numerous, making the authorities fear the scenario of a second wave. Nearly 1,200 cases and at least one death in a mine in Russia , 12 mines closed in Poland after the discovery of several thousand Covid-19 patients among employees of a mining group , several thousand positive tests among the employees of slaughterhouses or meat processing plants in Germany , France , United States , Spain , Netherlands and England … Homes for migrant workers infected with coronavirus in France , Italy or Singapore , and in Chicago , a prison which records a contamination rate 30 times higher than that of the region… Clusters, or centers of contamination are more and more numerous. And they emerge especially in closed places.

In Spain , one of the countries most affected with more than 28,300 deaths, "a  very significant increase in the number of cases of Covid-19 contagion  " led the Catalan authorities to order a reconfiguration around the city of Lerida since Saturday. Sunday, a second region of Spain was subjected to the same mode: the inhabitants of the 14 localities of the county of A Mariña, in Galicia, will not be able to leave the zone nor to meet with more than 10 people. "  Currently, we have 106 positive cases, which represents an increase of 21 cases since yesterday,  " said a regional official.

Despite public hospitals and out-of-breath health systems, the Balkans had weathered the shock of the first wave of Covid-19 relatively well in the spring, with a limited human toll. But the collapse, quickly started during the month of May by all the countries of the region, could dramatically call into question this balance sheet. At the end of May, Montenegro proclaimed itself "the  first corona-free country in the world  ", and hoped to start its tourist season without delay. But a month later, the situation deteriorated considerably  : the small country of 600,000 inhabitants identified several dozen new cases of contamination every day. On June 15, when they were not allowed to cross the Serbian border, hundreds of Montenegrins passed through Bosnia and Herzegovina to go to Belgrade and attend the Partizan-Red Star football match, which is played in front of 15,000 supporters in the Serbian capital. A few days later, there were 19 positive cases and since then, the virus has continued to spread.

In neighboring Serbia , the epidemic now seems to be out of control , particularly in the south of the country, left to itself by the central authorities. In Novi Pazar, where patients from the region flock, there are patients up in the corridors of the hospital. On June 30, when Prime Minister Ana Brnabić and Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar were visiting Novi Pazar, medical staff greeted them with their backs turned. This health situation did not prevent the authorities from organizing a new round of legislative elections, after the massive frauds observed on June 21. More than 200,000 Serbian voters returned to the polls on Wednesday July 1, in 234 sections, a veritable contagion trap. After having mastered the first wave of the epidemic in early May, this Balkan country has seen a resurgence in the number of cases, officially going from around 50 daily infections a month ago to more than 350 this week.

In Croatia , voters were called to the polls for the legislative this Sunday, in order to install a new government which will have to face the economic fallout from the coronavirus at a time when a resurgence of contaminations puts the outgoing conservatives under pressure .

A new containment, of at least two weeks, came into force on Sunday in Kazakhstan facing a quadrupling of the number of cases since the beginning of June.

In Australia , thousands of Melbourne residents have also been forced to stay home for at least five days since Saturday.

The China , the cradle of the pandemic, faces a return of the virus since mid-June in Beijing . Eight new cases of coronavirus contamination have been identified in mainland China, Chinese health officials said on Sunday. Six of these cases were "imported", according to the National Health Commission, the other two were registered in Beijing. The number of deaths caused by the coronavirus has remained unchanged since mid-May, with 4,634 deaths in the country since the start of the epidemic. The total number of contaminations is 83,553.

Countries where the pandemic is progressing

The United States celebrated a high-risk national holiday this Saturday in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which is making rampant progress in the country. The celebrations for July 4, "Independence Day" in the United States, have been revised downwards , while the United States recorded the same day 43,742 new infections and 252 new deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The previous three days had been marked by records of new cases, including more than 57,000 this Friday. Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Junior, the United States' oldest son, tested positive for Covid-19, reports the New York Times . She was present at Mount Rushmore where the president gave a speech on Friday, but she did not travel on the presidential plane.

The pandemic is also flaring in neighboring Mexico and the rest of Latin America . Mexico thus became the fifth most bereaved country in the world on Saturday, with 30,366 deaths, ahead of France, according to an official count from the Mexican Ministry of Health. Several governors of Mexican states located near the border call for much tighter control of travelers from the United States .

The Brazil recorded Saturday over 1 000 deaths related to coronaviruses and 37,923 new infections in twenty-four hours, according to the statements of the Ministry of Health. In the capital, the release worries while the coronavirus continues its ravages. Bars full of people, with customers without masks who do not respect the rules of social distancing ... The images shot this weekend in the chic district of Leblon shocked part of the inhabitants of Rio in full pandemic.

Despite drastic containment measures and one of the longest containments in the world, which ended on June 30, 2020 , Peru is now the second country in Latin America most affected by the coronavirus epidemic, with more than 230,000 confirmed cases and more than 7,000 deaths. Saturated hospitals, oxygen shortage, lack of staff: the epidemic led to the collapse of the Peruvian health system, already failing before the pandemic.

In Iran , the Ministry of Health announced on Sunday 163 additional deaths from Covid-19, the highest official number of daily deaths in that country since the start of the epidemic in February. Iran is the country hardest hit by the new coronavirus pandemic in the Near and Middle East . The new deaths bring the total toll of the pandemic in Iran to 11,571 dead, Sima health ministry spokesman Sadat Lari said on state television. These announcements come as Iran, confronted for several weeks with an increase in new confirmed cases and deaths, announced its intention to enforce the compulsory wearing of the mask in certain public places .

The India reported Sunday a case record, the Ministry of Health reporting a little less than 25 000 new cases and 613 deaths from coronavirus in 24 hours, the biggest daily rise since the beginning of the pandemic in the country , at the end of January. This record of cases comes at a time when the capital begins to treat patients in a spiritual center converted into a gigantic isolation center and a hospital with 10,000 beds, many of which are made of cardboard. The size of around twenty football fields, the facility will treat patients with mild symptoms. The government is concerned that half a million people will be infected by the end of July, while hospitals in big cities are overcrowded .

Health info

The European Commission approved this Friday, under conditions, the use of the antiviral remdesivir against Covid-19, following an accelerated examination. The European executive stresses that this treatment, produced by Gilead Sciences, is the first authorized in the EU for patients with Covid-19 after an examination procedure launched at the end of April by the European Medicines Agency and carried out and as the data arrives.

The Commission said on Wednesday it was negotiating with Gilead to obtain doses of remdesivir for the 27 EU countries. The US Department of Health has however announced that it has already obtained all of Gilead's production planned for July and 90% of that for August and September.

There has been a great demand for remdesivir since it has helped reduce the healing time in hospitals in clinical trials. It is perceived as more effective than other therapeutic means such as dexamethasone , a corticosteroid, in the earlier treatment of patients. However, it must be administered intravenously for at least five days and is therefore generally reserved for patients in a state requiring hospitalization.

Unusual info

An Indian businessman had a mask covered with gold made to measure, for which he paid some 4,000 dollars (3,556 euros). "  I am not sure that it is effective in protecting me from the coronavirus so I take other precautions,  " explained this lover of precious metal who wears gold bracelet, necklace and rings on each finger of his right hand.

Our selection on the coronavirus

• Listen to our Coronavirus Info column 

• Our  explanations  :
→  What we know about the mode of contagion
→  Disparities and inequalities in the face of the coronavirus
→  Triple therapy, Discovery… update on research
→  Remdesivir, antibodies and immunity
→  The race for the vaccine is in full swing
→  How to make a mask and use it well

• Our series  :
→ “  The response, country by country  ”
→ “  Words of nurses  ”

• After Covid-19, towards a new world?

• See also the files of RFI Savoirs on the Covid-19:
→  Birth of a pandemic
→  Everyday life put to the test
→  The history of epidemics
→  Science facing the Covid-19
→  The geopolitical consequences

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• Coronavirus
• Coronavirus: the state of the world facing the pandemic

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