Coronavirus: update on the pandemic in the world – Orange news

AFP, published on Friday, August 20, 2021 at 8:08 p.m.

New measures, new reports and highlights: an update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic around the world.

– Sri Lanka is confined –

Sri Lanka’s president has announced a ten-day national lockdown that will go into effect overnight, as the island faces a Covid-19 outbreak that overwhelms hospitals, morgues and crematoriums.

– Prolonged confinements in New Zealand and Sydney –

New Zealand has extended the containment of the entire archipelago by four days. The three-day national confinement was initially to be lifted overnight from Friday to Saturday.

The first local case in six months appeared this week in an Auckland resident.

In Australia, the Sydney containment, which began two months ago, has been extended by one month, due to an epidemic resurgence due to the Delta variant.

– Catalonia calls for the curfew to be reinstated in Barcelona –

The regional government of Catalonia has called for the reinstatement of the night curfew in Barcelona, ​​as well as in several dozen other cities, to fight against the pandemic, after having been rejected of its request to maintain this measure in this tourist region of northeast of Spain.

– Preventive treatment on trial –

AstraZeneca has announced encouraging results for a treatment against Covid-19 that significantly reduces the risk of developing a symptomatic form of the disease in fragile patients.

This antibody treatment, whose code name is AZD7442, had previously not shown its effectiveness in people already exposed to the virus. But by administering it before being in contact with the virus, the results are there, according to the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical group.

– Israel: 3rd dose from 40 years old –

Israel has decided to lower the minimum age to 40 years for receiving a 3rd dose of vaccine against the coronavirus, in order to fight against an increase in contamination linked to the Delta variant. It should be administered for this age group from Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, 49, received his third dose on Friday, encouraging people to follow suit.

For those aged 60 and over, the booster vaccination campaign began three weeks ago. On August 13, the minimum age was lowered for the first time, to 50 years.

– Philippines: record of contaminations –

The Philippines recorded a new record of Covid-19 contamination in 24 hours, as the authorities ease health restrictions to relieve the economy, in the face of the financial difficulties of the population.

– More than 4.4 million dead –

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed at least 4,401,486 people around the world since the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP from official sources, Friday in the middle of the day.

The United States is the most affected country with 625,166 deaths, ahead of Brazil (572,641 deaths), India (433,589), Mexico (251,319) and Peru (197,716).

The WHO estimates, taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, that the toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that calculated from official figures.