In Europe, the preparation of the authorities and the knowledge accumulated in recent months should make it possible to avoid a lockdown of society as a whole, estimated the WHO and the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef), which have also called on African governments to promote the reopening of schools closed for nearly six months, taking measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Unprecedented and prolonged school closures in an attempt to protect students from Covid-19 are causing them further harm,” estimated the two UN agencies.
The figures of new cases of contamination in 24 hours published Thursday in France, Italy, Germany or Spain are worrying and show a rebound in the pandemic, often in favor of holidays, parties and travel.
In Spain, 7,039 new cases have been declared. In France, the figure was 4,771 new cases, an unprecedented increase since May. In Germany, 1,707 new cases were detected while in Italy, the Ministry of Health reported 845 new cases.
“Way and manner of partying”
In all these countries, young people, often not very sick or even asymptomatic, have been identified as the main vectors of these new contaminations.
“I understand that people want to party. But there is a way and a way to party”, said the director of the health alert center for Spain, Fernando Simon.
“All those who have influence on the population must participate in raising awareness (…) I believe that there are many + influencers + in Spain with very high visibility who can help to control the epidemic”, he said.
For Professor Massimo Galli, head of the infectious diseases department at the prestigious Sacco hospital in Milan (Italy), “Travel is also a source of problems. I don’t want to look like the one who has after the young people, but certain episodes struck me, for example that of these nine young people returned (positive, editor’s note) from Croatia “.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that “the doubling of (new) cases” observed on average each day “in all of Germany in the last three weeks” is a “development which should not continue but which we should on the contrary halt”.
This situation has led Berlin to declare practically all of Spain and the coasts of Croatia – popular destinations for German holidaymakers – areas at risk and impose tests and quarantines on return.
In France, the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer however ruled out a general postponement of the start of the new school year, even if “local exceptions” could be considered.
Reduce debt
The crisis could push an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty around the world, even more than previously estimated, World Bank President David Malpass warned Thursday. A situation that makes it “imperative” for creditors to reduce the debt of poor countries, he said, going further than calls to extend the moratorium on the debt of the poorest countries.
Germany announced overnight from Thursday to Friday that it would have to resort to borrowing again next year to finance a large budget deficit due to the continuing impact of the pandemic. Germany, traditionally a champion of budgetary rigor and which has accumulated budget surpluses in recent years, will therefore break for the second consecutive year with its orthodoxy in this area.
Faced with the rebound of the pandemic, in Europe and in many other countries, restrictions are increasing. The epidemic has killed at least 788,242 people since the end of December, according to an assessment established Thursday by AFP from official sources.
The United States, the most affected country in the world, recorded on Thursday 46,704 new cases (total: 5,571,102) and 1,213 new deaths (total: 174,178).
Ukraine also recorded 2,134 new cases of coronavirus and 40 deaths Thursday, a “record” according to the authorities for whom the situation “has substantially worsened”.
In Morocco, severe restrictive measures were put in place Thursday in Casablanca and Marrakech, the economic and tourist capitals of the country. King Mohamed VI expressed his concern at the “exceptional multiplication of cases of infection”, calling on citizens to be more civic-minded to avoid a re-containment of the country.
“Reasonable outlook”
Latin America and the Caribbean crossed the threshold of 250,000 deaths from Covid-19 on Thursday, while Colombia – the 4th most affected country after Brazil, Mexico and Peru – exceeded the threshold of half a million case.
On Thursday, Argentina announced a record of more than 8,000 contaminations in one day.
The pandemic has swept away the dreams of millions of Latin American teenagers, deprived of their fifteenth birthday, a coming-of-age tradition still deeply rooted in the region. These young girls cannot hope to live their “quinceañera”, a sort of “debutante ball” celebrated with family and with great pomp on the occasion of their birthday, before 2021.
As research accelerates to find a vaccine, the European Commission announced Thursday that it had reserved 225 million doses of the potential Covid-19 vaccine from the German CureVac. This is the fourth such agreement reached by the EU with laboratories.
For French President Emmanuel Macron, there are “reasonable prospects” get a vaccine “in the coming months”.
“I say this and it is very important, at the same time that we have several vaccines which are in phase III, we have reasonable prospects of having a vaccine in the coming months”, he said.
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