Considered less dangerous than the Delta variant, Omicron still remains a threatening strain of Covid-19. According to the World Health Organization, half a million people have died since this strain first discovered in South Africa was listed as a concern by the organization.
In France, the fifth wave seems to have reached its peak last week, with indicators that are slowly coming down. Enough to announce in schools a possible easing of the health protocol by the end of the week, or next week, while the European Medicines Agency is studying the possibility of a booster dose for 12-15 year olds.
- Towards the end of the vaccine course “end of March, beginning of April”?
The government believes that there are “reasons to hope” that “at the end of March-beginning of April we will be able to lift the vaccination pass,” due to the improvement of the health situation, spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday.
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“The frank decline, we are there,” he said at the end of the Council of Ministers, referring to the decline in contamination. “There is reason to hope that by this time the situation will have improved sufficiently for us to be able to lift its final measures,” he added.
- Half a million dead since Omicron
The World Health Organization (WHO) lamented on Tuesday that there have been half a million deaths due to Covid since the discovery of the Omicron variant and although vaccines exist, calling this toll “more than tragic”.
“While everyone was saying Omicron was more benign, we missed the fact that half a million people have died since it was detected,” said WHO incident Manager Abdi Mahamud. “In the era of effective vaccines, half a million people dying is really something (…)This is more than tragic,” he added, during an exchange organized on social networks by the organization.
According to Abdi Mahamud, 130 million cases and 500,000 deaths have been recorded worldwide since Omicron was deemed “of concern” by the WHO at the end of November. This variant has since quickly overtaken Delta as the dominant variant in the world, as it is more contagious, although it seems to lead to less serious diseases.
- Announcements expected at the weekend for the school in France
Lightening of the health protocol in schools for the return of the February holidays should be announced “at the weekend or early next week”, with among the avenues considered, a decrease in the number of self-tests or the end of wearing the mask outdoors, unions said Tuesday.
“We were told that an opinion from the High council of public health would be delivered at the weekend” and “that decisions would then arrive fairly quickly”, with “announcements planned for the weekend or early next week,” Sophie Vénétitay, secretary general of the Snes-FSU, the first secondary school union, told AFP after a meeting between trade union organizations, the Ministries of Education and Health and the High council of public health.
“It should be either Friday or early next week,” added Guislaine David, general secretary of the SNUipp-FSU, the first primary school union.
- The subcontractor Cenexi will produce in France a treatment under study
The French subcontractor Cenexi has made an agreement with the American biotech Humanigen to produce in France Lenzilumab, a potential treatment under study against Covid-19, he announced on Wednesday. Cenexi, a pharmaceutical subcontractor specializing in the formulation and development of innovative sterile products, will thus become the only producer in France of this potential treatment for the next five years. The batches will be produced at its factory in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, in Calvados.
Lenzilumab, a monoclonal antibody, aims to prevent and treat “cytokine shock” or “cytokine storm”, an uncontrolled inflammatory reaction that seems to play a key role in severe cases of Covid-19. It is currently being registered with the European and French health authorities.
Humanigen is also investigating the effectiveness of this treatment in other inflammatory conditions, such as graft-versus-host disease in patients who have received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, cells made by the bone marrow.
- EMA evaluates Pfizer booster dose for 12- to 15-year-olds
The European medicines regulator said on Tuesday it had started evaluating an application for approval of a booster dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid vaccine, called Comirnaty, for children aged 12 to 15.
The European Medicines Agency said last week it would rule soon on a similar request for 16- and 17-year-olds.
The EMA approved Pfizer-BioNTech’s “Comirnaty” booster injections in October for all people aged 18 and over, and then made a similar decision regarding Moderna’s “Spikevax” booster injections.
- In Canada, relief in the face of challenges from truck drivers
In the face of the determination of the protesters who have been blocking the center of the capital Ottawa for more than ten days, a movement seemed to be underway on Tuesday in Canada to relax the health restrictions against Covid among the strictest in the world. In central Ottawa, between 400 and 500 trucks were still occupying the streets on Tuesday to oppose the health measures, a situation “out of control” for the city that triggered this weekend the state of emergency.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who remained silent for several days, denounced the movement on Monday and believed that “it must stop”. “We are all tired of restrictions, of having to make sacrifices almost every day but our responsibility as a government is to ensure the health and safety of everyone,” he told the House of Commons on Tuesday.
However, some provinces have announced new reliefs: for example, Saskatchewan and Alberta (central), will completely abandon the vaccine passport, believing that “the benefits no longer outweigh the costs”. And for the first time since the introduction of new restrictions related to the Omicron wave, Quebec has announced a detailed schedule of upcoming relief.
- Johnson & Johnson has temporarily suspended production of its vaccine
Johnson & Johnson has temporarily suspended production of its Covid-19 vaccine at the only factory that currently manufactures marketable batches, in the Netherlands, the The New York Times, the laboratory assuring that this does not affect its deliveries. According to the US daily, the factory in Leiden stopped producing the vaccine at the end of last year to make an experimental vaccine against another virus instead.
Production of the Covid-19 vaccine is expected to resume there “after a pause of a few months,” the newspaper adds, citing people familiar with the decision. Without confirming or denying this information, Johnson & Johnson stressed that it has “millions of doses” in stock.
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The group “continues to fulfill all its obligations to the Covax system [qui approvisionne les pays pauvres en vaccins anti-Covid-19] and the African Union,” the company also said in a message sent to AFP. Johnson & Johnson, which has been selling the product moder the cost price since the beginning of the pandemic, distributes far fewer than Pfizer or Moderna.
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