Covid-19 in the world: a Chinese city of 4 million inhabitants reconfigured, increase in cases in Europe – archyde

China, where the virus was discovered at the end of 2019, has almost eradicated the epidemic on its soil since the spring of 2020. But an epidemic resurgence in the north of the country worries in recent days the authorities, who imposed, Tuesday October 26, the confinement of a city of four million inhabitants, Lanzhou, in the northwest. This revival also concerns Europe, since the beginning of October.

The pandemic has killed nearly five million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by Agence France-Presse (AFP) from official sources, Tuesday at 10 a.m. The United States is the most bereaved country with more than 735,000 dead, followed by Brazil, which deplores more than 605,000 dead.

These figures are based on the daily official balance sheets of each country, excluding upward revisions made a posteriori by some statistical agencies. By taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the global toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that officially recorded.

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• In China, Lanzhou reconfined

All residential areas in the capital of Gansu province will be subject to a “Closed management” with strict movement control, Lanzhou Municipality said on Tuesday. Any exit outside the home will now only be possible for “Essential purchases”, an imperative linked to the epidemic, or “Emergency medical treatment”, specifies a press release from the authorities.

China nationally reported 29 new cases of Covid-19 of local origin on Tuesday. The majority are linked to the movements of a group of contaminated tourists. While the figures may seem paltry compared to those recorded daily in other parts of the world, they are pushing the authorities to redouble their vigilance as China prepares to host the Winter Olympics, from February 4, 2022.

A recent outbreak in Inner Mongolia, in the north of the country, has been responsible for more than 100 cases since last week. The Chinese authorities, which practice a policy of ” zero tolerance “ with regard to the virus, reacted swiftly, imposing restrictions and organizing massive screening campaigns in the affected regions.

The Beijing Marathon, scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed indefinitely, and tens of thousands of residents have been confined to their homes, including in the capital. As since the start of the epidemic, Chinese officials are relying on an arsenal of radical measures: massive screening, monitoring of movements thanks to mobile applications, compulsory confinements and quarantines, drastic filtering of entries into the territory.

• Entry requirements still tightened in Hong Kong

Hong Kong will further tighten entry restrictions, already among the most severe in the world, to align with China in the fight against Covid-19, the territory’s leader, Carrie Lam, announced on Tuesday.

Hong Kong already imposes isolation from fourteen to twenty-one days in hotels intended for new arrivals. This quarantine made it possible to almost completely control the pandemic but it is criticized by the business community, worried about the competitiveness of the city, a major global financial center. Rare exemptions are provided, especially for diplomats or leaders of large companies, who are allowed to isolate themselves at home, or for some Hong Kong residents arriving from mainland China.

“Soon we will be announcing that most of the quarantine exemptions granted to specific groups of visitors from abroad and from the mainland will be canceled”said M^me Lam without providing details.

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• The pandemic is on the rise in Europe

While the Covid-19 pandemic has stagnated in Europe since the beginning of August, the continent is experiencing a resurgence, both in terms of contaminations and deaths due to the disease, according to an AFP count established from official reports and stopped at Monday. During the past seven days, more than 1.6 million cases, or an average of 239,000 per day, have been recorded in the region, made up of 52 countries and territories (in the east, up to Azerbaijan and Russia). This is 18% more than the week before, and about 60% more than in August and September, when the number of new cases stagnated around 150,000 cases per day.

Forty-two countries on the continent have seen increased contamination on their territory in the past seven days, while only seven have recorded declining figures. The current figures remain lower than the highest reached in the region between November 2 and 8, 2020, which averaged 284,000 cases per day. But Europe currently represents more than 55% of new contaminations in the world.

Outside micro-states, the countries most affected by this epidemic rebound are the Czech Republic, with an average of about 3,100 cases per day during the last seven days, or 124% more than the previous week. Hungary follows, with 2,000 daily cases, a number up 104%, and Poland, with nearly 5,000 cases, or 95% more. In relation to their population, the countries currently recording the most contaminations in Europe are Latvia, Estonia and Georgia, with 880, 753 and 736 cases per 100,000 inhabitants respectively over the last seven days.

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• The world hasn’t learned lessons from pandemic, report says

A year and a half after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has still reacted too little and has not learned from its mistakes, warns the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), a global health observer, who in a report released Tuesday at the World Health Summit in Berlin denounces the continued failures of the global response to the pandemic.

“While the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic was defined by a collective failure to take preparedness seriously and act quickly on the basis of science, the second was marked by deep inequalities and leadership failure. understand our interdependence and act accordingly. “

This independent body created by the WHO and the World Bank judges that the pandemic has revealed a world “Unequal, divided and irresponsible”. Of more than six billion doses of vaccine administered worldwide, only 1.4% concerned fully vaccinated inhabitants in poor countries, denounced at the beginning of the month the director of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. .

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“Scientific progress during Covid-19, in particular the speed of vaccine development, gives us cause for pride”, says GPMB co-chair Elhadj As Sy, prefacing the report. “However, we must feel deep shame in the face of multiple tragedies – the hoarding of vaccines, the devastating oxygen shortages in low-income countries, the generation of children deprived of education, the bursting of economies and fragile health systems ”, insisted the Senegalese expert in humanitarian aid.

The World with AFP