Germany is already experiencing “a summer wave”, Nice returns to the mandatory mask on public transport, China imposes restrictions on 114 million citizens and infections rise by 24.6% in South America
Nice returns to the obligation to wear the mask on public transport. From next Monday, July 11, all residents and tourists of the representative city of the French Côte d’Azur must regain this precaution against Covid-19 in buses and trams, according to a municipal decree that, in the opinion of the mayor, Christian Estrosi, can eventually spread all over the country. Emmanuel Macon’s government is now limiting itself to recommending its use, but the exorbitant escalation of the coronavirus in France, with 206,000 new infections in one day, seems to announce that the arrival of a new wave will not only come with advice. be stopped.
In France it is the seventh wave. The eighth can be seen in Spain. In other countries it is counted as the fifth. But the fact is that a remarkable majority of countries are registering a trend of increasing infections. In South America, the Pan American Health Organization confirms that the epidemic has increased by 25% and mainly affects Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, the third country in the world in terms of number of infections (32.5 million as of March 2020), preceded only by the United States (90 million) and India (44). On July 1, Spain was ranked 11th among the areas most affected by the virus, with an estimated 12.7 million cases.
The new French health minister, François Braun, an emergency doctor, urged on Tuesday that all people at risk be revaccinated and asked citizens to use the mask “in crowded places”. The day before, the executive had launched an emergency health care law. If the parliament approves it, the neighboring country will impose new health rules that are less restrictive than before, but which restore, for example, the possibility to re-enter a health passport to enter the country. In that case, it would be a pioneering state of the European Union to return to the restrictions on intra-Community travel.
The mere likelihood of this happening is a blow to an EU that wants at all costs to promote the economic recovery and maintain the normality achieved in recent months, despite the fact that the pandemic is still there. At the end of June, the World Health Organization (WHO) ordered all European governments to closely monitor the course of the epidemic due to the increase in infections, mainly caused by the BA.5 subvariant of omicron. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, recently re-elected as head of WHO, reported at a press conference that cases have increased by 20% and deaths have increased in three of the planet’s six health regions, for which he recommended boosting vaccination to 70% of the world’s population has been vaccinated. In the past year and a half, the agency has dispensed more than 12 billion doses.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) agrees with this X-ray. In Latin America, there are concerns that 11 countries are showing vaccination rates below 40% of the count and in others there are only acceptable margins, meaning 224 million people have not yet received the first dose. This gap, together with the ease of transmission of the new subvariants, has led to the current situations that are characteristic of the most tense times of the epidemic. The latest bulletin from Brazil’s Health Ministry indicates there were 74,591 positives in 24 hours on Tuesday and, worst of all, 396 deaths, the highest figure since the 485 deaths this country recorded on March 17. Brazil is the area with the most deaths from Covid (672,429) after the United States, where it has more than one million deaths.
“In South America, the incidence of Covid-19 has increased significantly, with nearly half a million new cases reported in the past week, representing a 24.6% increase compared to the previous week,” explains the director. . PAHO, Carissa Etienne. However, doctors believe that the true number of those infected must necessarily be much higher, as most self-diagnostic tests, which are widely sold in pharmacies, escape official counts.
Experts note that the upward curve in South America has intensified with the arrival of the southern winter, which brings more respiratory diseases into circulation. In the European case, the escalation appears to be more closely related to mobility and summer concentrations, which interact with the higher infectivity of the virus and the decline in protective measures such as the mask and safety distance. Precautions that governments like those of Brazil, Bolivia or Argentina are recommending again.
The WHO fears this escalation is just the prologue to a powerful coronavirus episode ahead of its natural date, between next fall and winter. German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has already warned that “unfortunately, the announced summer wave is already a reality” and will provide “little relief” for Germans in the coming weeks. The country has 818,000 active cases. There were 92,344 positives and 112 deaths in one day. The ministry estimates that the viral peak will come in mid-July, with the BA.5 subvariant causing 50% of infections and BA.4 an additional 16% of infections.
In addition to Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain are among the first eleven countries with the highest number of infections, a list that also includes Russia and which shows Europe’s vulnerability to the corona virus and its new variants. Omicron was first discovered outside of South Africa in Oslo, Norway, last December when dozens of people became infected during a company dinner. But despite the fact that the situation in this environment is worrying, the crisis is where it really sounds the alarm in China. More than a hundred million people have faced restrictions or live in confinement since a rebound in cases was discovered this first weekend in July. Their presence is increasing in the city of Shanghai, where bars, restaurants and karaoke places have closed and a new population survey has started.
Although the immense city of 26 million people released just 24 new patients this Wednesday — and 300 across the country — authorities have decided to run tests in half of its districts. The population emerged from a strict two-month lockdown five weeks ago and now fears to return to a similar situation, especially given what is happening in Anhui province, where 1.7 million citizens from rural villages are being locked up in their homes, or Xi ‘an, whose 13 million inhabitants have been subject to ‘temporary control measures’ since Saturday. In total, about 114 million Chinese have been subject to closures or restrictions on their movements as part of the “covid zero” program launched by the government, which aims to eradicate the outbreaks at the root to prevent a pandemic of large numbers. proportions in the country with the largest population, and also the oldest, in the world.
Source: La Verdad
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