After Great Britain where it led to a new record of contaminations, the variant of the coronavirus has been detected in the north and south of the American continent, forcing other countries to take new measures.
The first case of infection with the British variant was detected on Tuesday in the United States, the country with the highest number of deaths linked to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. (Go Nakamura / Getty Images / AFP)
AFP
The coronavirus variant, discovered in Britain, was first detected on Tuesday in Latin America and the United States, where President-elect Joe Bien, worried about the delay in vaccinations, pledged to dramatically accelerate the pace of this unprecedented campaign.
The new strain, which first appeared in the UK, has set a new record of contaminations in 24 hours and led South Africa to impose new measures, as the world fears that many travelers from the holiday season only worsens the outbreak.
The coronavirus has killed 1,775,272 people worldwide and infected more than 81,517,140 people according to an AFP count on Tuesday, although vaccination campaigns are gaining speed in Europe and the Americas.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has warned that the risk is “high” that the recently identified Covid-19 variants are a source of additional pressure on health systems and a higher cause of death in the disease. makes their greatest contagiousness.
The first case of infection with the British variant was detected on Tuesday in the United States, the country with the highest number of deaths linked to Covid-19 since the start of this pandemic a year ago, which has made more than 1.78 million victims worldwide.
The patient carrying the variant B.1.1.7. is a man in his twenties who lives in Colorado, has not traveled and is in isolation in Elbert County near Denver according to Governor Jared Polis.
President-elect Joe Biden, who will take office in less than a month, expressed his concern: “The coming weeks and months are going to be very difficult for our country,” he said during a speech in his stronghold of Wilmington, Delaware. “Perhaps the most difficult of the whole pandemic.”
“Move heaven and earth”
Because despite calls from the authorities to stay at home, millions of Americans have traveled to celebrate Christmas with their families.
In Los Angeles, ambulances are already lining up in front of saturated hospitals to drop off their Covid-19 positive patients. In this context, southern California decided on Tuesday to extend its confinement.
Joe Biden also criticized the delays in the distribution of anti-Covid vaccines in the United States, stressing that this massive vaccination campaign was the “biggest challenge we have ever had to face”. “The Trump administration’s plan for vaccine distribution is way overdue,” Joe Biden said, promising, “I’m going to move heaven and earth.”
Joe Biden renewed his pledge of 100 million doses administered in the first 100 days of his tenure.
The Trump administration had posted a target of 20 million people vaccinated by the end of the year. Some 2.1 million people have received a first injection of one of two licensed vaccines (Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna), according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As caregivers wait to be vaccinated, elected officials were among the first to receive the vaccine to encourage the public to do the same. The future vice-president Kamala Harris received her first of two doses on Tuesday in front of the cameras in Washington, in a medical center in a district with a large African-American population, very reluctant to vaccination.
“Uncontrolled takeover” possible
At the national level, it is France which is “world champion” of vaccine-resistant (only 4 out of 10 French people who want to use it), ahead of Russia (43%) and South Africa (53%) , according to an Ipsos Global Advisor poll released Tuesday.
In France, where an “uncontrolled resumption of the epidemic” in January is “probable” because of the “increase in contamination” caused by the end of year celebrations, the government is planning new measures in the most affected areas , especially the east of the country.
An advanced two-hour curfew, at 6 p.m., is envisaged locally from January 2, announced in the evening the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, excluding for the time being a new local or generalized confinement.
The number of people hospitalized and serious cases in intensive care has started to rise again in France (24,645 and 2,694 on Monday), while the number of new cases detected each day is on average 12,000, far from the target of 5000 set by the government.
The number of contaminations also soared Tuesday in the United Kingdom, where the alert was launched on overloaded hospitals, “at the heart of the storm”.
The United Kingdom, one of the most bereaved countries in Europe (71,500 dead), on Tuesday reached a record of new cases in a single day with the census of 53,135 contaminations, and the number of hospitalizations is still more important than during the peak of the first wave, in the spring.
Variant detected in Chile
The epidemic is on the rise again since the identification of the Sars-CoV-2 variant up to 74% more contagious, according to a study. It has been spotted in more and more countries and on several continents, with the first confirmed case in Latin America being announced in Chile on Tuesday.
The mutation has been found in several countries, such as Portugal, France, or even Jordan and South Korea. In Germany, health authorities said on Tuesday that it was present in the north of the country from November.
Argentina, along with Belarus, began its campaign with the Russian vaccine on Tuesday, becoming the first Latin American country to use it.
In the EU, the vaccination campaign which began this weekend after the green light for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is continuing, and the delivery of 300 million doses to the Union was confirmed on Tuesday.
Posted today at 03:56-
