The covid-19 pandemic is gaining momentum in virtually the world and on Friday again set a daily record for infections in the United States, where as in other countries, the vaccination campaign is accelerating amid reluctance and criticism. .
The United States recorded more than 290,000 infections in 24 hours on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University, a day after the country recorded a daily record of nearly 4,000 deaths from covid-19.
“Vaccines give us hope, but their distribution has been a farce,” Biden told reporters.
Vaccine distribution will be “the biggest operational challenge we will ever face as a nation,” the president-elect who will replace Donald Trump on Jan. 20 said.
The United States is the country in the world most devastated by the pandemic, with more than 368,000 dead and nearly 22 million infected. In Los Angeles, for example, one of the most affected areas, a person dies of coronavirus every 15 minutes right now.
The pandemic has left more than 1.9 million dead and about 88.8 million infected worldwide since its appearance in China in late 2019, according to an AFP report conducted with official data this Saturday.
In Asia, the situation is also worrying. Chinese authorities tightened movement restrictions in two neighboring cities in Beijing to eradicate a focus of contagion.
These restrictions, which will affect nearly 18 million people in Shijiazhuang and Xingtai for a week, come before the Chinese New Year, which will be celebrated in February, in which millions of people travel to visit family and friends. , which raises fears of an increase in infections.
China said on Saturday that it had already administered nine million doses of its covid-19 vaccine.
In Australia, the third largest city in the country, Brisbane, began its first day of confinement on Saturday, decreed by authorities following the discovery of a first case of the British variant of covid-19. On the streets of the city only a few people with masks were seen.
– Concern for new strains –
Two new variants of the coronavirus, which have appeared in the UK and South Africa, are of worldwide concern for being much more contagious.
The British variant has already been detected in at least eight states in the United States, where 63 cases of this new strain have been reported, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
German lab BioNTech, however, gave a reassuring message on Friday that the vaccine it developed with US giant Pfizer was effective against a “key mutation” in these new strains.
Despite months of confinement and restrictive measures around the world, many countries are recording records of infections and deaths at this time. Among them the UK, which on Friday announced 1,325 deaths and 68,053 cases in 24 hours, its highest figures since the start of the pandemic.
In London hospitals are at risk of seeing patients saturated and “the spread of viruses is out of control,” said its mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The numbers coming from Latin America and the Caribbean are also worrisome. The region has more than 526,000 deaths and 16.3 million infections.
Brazil is the second most mourned country in the world for covid-19 – behind the United States – with more than 201,000 deaths.
There, the health regulatory agency announced that it formally received on Friday the order for emergency use of the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac and the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine, the first to be carried out in that country.
So far in Latin America, vaccinations have already begun in Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile and Argentina.
Mexico, also particularly hit by the pandemic, recorded a record number of infections for the second day in a row (14,362), and the capital, one of the regions most affected, extended the state of health alert for the virus and announced that it will maintain suspended non-essential activities.
Argentina decided to restrict night activities and the movement of people, given the acceleration of infections. Since March, the country has recorded more than 44,000 deaths.
A first case of the new British strain was also reported in Peru and in Bolivia the government announced that classes will begin virtually across the country on February 1 in the face of a wave of infections that prevents face-to-face courses.
– WHO call –
As the race to immunize populations against the coronavirus accelerates, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged rich countries to stop signing “bilateral agreements” with vaccine-producing laboratories.
“50% of high-income countries are vaccinating now,” said Bruce Aylward, a WHO adviser. “0% of low-income countries are vaccinating. It’s not fair.”
These statements come just when the European Union (EU) concluded an agreement with Pfizer / BioNTech to double its pre-purchase contract, going from 300 million to 600 million doses. At the moment, with confirmed purchases, the EU can vaccinate 380 million citizens, or 80% of its population, according to Brussels estimates.
Iran, for its part, announced that it does not trust any of the vaccines developed by the United States (Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna) and the United Kingdom (Astrazeneca / Oxford) and directly banned their entry into the country.
“We cannot trust them. It is not impossible that they want to pollute other nations,” said the supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.