Transmission of the coronavirus from a first animal then a second before contamination to humans is the hypothesis “most likely“said Peter Ben Embarek, head of the WHO delegation which has just carried out an investigation in Wuhan, the cradle of the epidemic, in central China.
However, this track requires “more specific and targeted research“, he added.
Transmission from an animal is probable but this one has “not yet identified“, said Liang Wannian, the head of the delegation of Chinese scientists. Since the first cases of Covid-19 reported in Wuhan, the pandemic has killed more than 2.3 million people worldwide.
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In any case, the hypothesis of the leak of the coronavirus from a laboratory is “highly improbable“, according to the head of the WHO delegation in Wuhan.
And “there is not enough evidence […] to determine if Sars-Cov-2 spread to Wuhan before December 2019“, a indiqué Liang Wannian.
This mission on the origins of the transmission of the virus to humans, considered extremely important to try to better fight against a possible next epidemic, has struggled to put in place, China seeming very reluctant to let these global specialists come. from various disciplines such as epidemiology but also zoology.
The WHO had previously warned that it would be necessary to be patient before finding a possible answer.
“We are in a process and we need time and effort to understand“what happened,” Dr Hung Nguyen-Viet, co-director of the human and animal health program at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, told AFP.
– “Too early“for a rejection –
The Chinese mission comes to an end as other WHO experts on Monday examined AstraZeneca’s anti-Covid-19 vaccine, the effectiveness of which is now in question for the elderly and against the South African variant of virus.
The AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine, which the United Kingdom was the first to administer massively to its population in December, has already been approved by several other countries and by the European Union. But some governments have preferred to recommend it only for those under 65 or even 55, for lack of sufficient data on its effectiveness for the elderly.
On Sunday, South Africa suspended the start of its vaccination program, which was due to take place in the coming days with a million AstraZeneca vaccines, after a study showing efficacy “limited“against the local variant of the virus.
According to the initial results of this study, this vaccine is only 22% effective against moderate forms of the South African variant. No results are yet available on its effectiveness against severe forms.
It is “much too early to reject this vaccine“, who is “an important part of the global response to the current pandemic“, however assured Richard Hatchett, who heads CEPI, the research arm of the Covax mechanism, set up by the WHO to try to guarantee an equitable distribution of the means to fight against Covid-19.
“We believe our vaccine will still protect against severe forms of the disease“, said for its part a spokesperson for AstraZeneca.
– Vaccination in Iran –
In Iran, it was with the Russian vaccine Sputnik V that the country most affected by the pandemic in the Near and Middle East began its vaccination campaign on Tuesday.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 2.31 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP on Monday. More than 106 million cases have been diagnosed.
In the United States, the variant of the virus initially identified in the United Kingdom is spreading rapidly with a doubling of the number of cases every ten days, threatening to cause a new epidemic peak, according to a study.
Republican Congressman Ron Wright, 67, has died of Covid-19, becoming the first member to sit on Capitol Hill to succumb to the virus. The country deplores 464,831 deaths from the virus to date.
In the Netherlands, the government announced on Monday that it would extend the curfew until March 2, a measure that has sparked the worst riots in the country in the past 40 years.
Conversely, Ontario, the most populous province in Canada and confined since December 26, announced a partial reopening of non-essential businesses from Wednesday. “Today we see breakthroughs of the sun“Doug Ford, Prime Minister of that state said Monday.”The (restrictive) measures are working. Staying at home saves lives“.
In Russia, a sharp increase in mortality was recorded in 2020, fueled by the pandemic, according to data released on Monday which shows more than 162,000 deaths linked to the new coronavirus in the period April-December alone.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron stressed the need to “accelerate“the launch of the vaccination campaign in emerging countries.
The President of the European Commission for her part called on EU countries to “give a part“of their vaccines to Ukraine, after Kiev, which refused the Russian vaccine, called on Europeans for help in obtaining it.
burs-blb / pz
