New measures, new assessments and highlights: the update on the latest developments of the Covid-19 pandemic in the world.
The situation in France
Is France, following other countries, getting closer to lifting the vaccination pass? The government is considering it for the end of March or early April, when a new round of anti-Covid restrictions is already due to disappear in a week. After Israel, England, Denmark, which have abolished their vaccination or health pass, France might in turn renounce this disputed device.
The government’s “Mr vaccine”, Alain Fischer, set the tone late Wednesday morning, before a Senate committee of inquiry. A lifting of the vaccination pass is conceivable “by the end of March” or early “April”, Fischer estimated. If, and only if, several conditions are at the rendezvous: an incidence rate “10 or 20 times lower” than currently, the end of the hospital overload and a very high proportion of vaccinated. The executive took it in stride.
To read :Gabriel Attal evokes a possible end of the vaccination pass as early as “late March, early April”
“There are reasons to hope that in this period of time the situation will have improved sufficiently for us to be able to lift these final measures,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said, when asked at the end of the Council of ministers following a health defense council.
Already, just a week ago, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran claimed that “the worst is behind us” for this fifth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic and considered likely a lifting of the vaccination pass before July. In the eyes of the authorities, the threat from the Omicron variant, which is less dangerous than its predecessors although significantly more contagious, is receding. The wave of contamination linked to Omicron has been decreasing markedly since the end of January. “The frank decline, we are there,” said Gabriel Attal, “but let’s keep from bluster”.
To read :Margrethe II and Felipe VI, the two monarchs are positive for Covid-19
For hospitalizations (320 on Tuesday) and deaths (363 in hospital on Tuesday), however, the waves remain very high. The vaccination pass will be lifted “from then on (…) that there will no longer be a hospital under very high stress due to Covid,” Gabriel Attal said. But until then, the rules for keeping your vaccination pass will change, next Tuesday.
Between 4 and 5 million French adults might lose their sesame if they have not received a booster dose by then, or if they have not been infected following two doses, according to estimates by health authorities.
The balance sheet in the world
The pandemic has officially made more than 5,761,646 deaths worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a toll compiled by AFP on Wednesday at 11:00 GMT, while the threshold of 400 million cases recorded should be crossed soon.
The United States is the country with the most deaths (909,020), ahead of Brazil (633,810), India (505,279) and Russia (337,390).
WHO estimates, taking into account the over-mortality directly and indirectly related to Covid-19, that the overall toll of the pandemic might be two to three times higher than that established from official national figures.
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