CORONAVIRUS – After Pfizer-BioNTech, France now has the Moderna vaccine. Faced with the rise in the number of positive cases – and the concern caused by the British variant – the curfew was brought forward to 6 p.m. in eight additional departments on Sunday and two more will follow on Tuesday. Follow the latest news.
CASES OF THE BRITISH VARIANT IN LILLE
Two cases of the British variant of the coronavirus were confirmed in Lille on Sunday by resorting to sequencing, LCI learned from the Hauts-de-France Regional Health Agency.
These two cases, which date from the end of December, are located “in Lille, in the medical professional environment”, and are “closed in terms of epidemiological monitoring”, explained to the press the Director General of the ARS Hauts-de-France Benoît Vallet.
For another potential case, in “a truck driver who was returning from England and was screened on leaving the UK”, the results of the sequencing are not yet known, Mr Vallet added.
“We will undoubtedly have in the coming days other confirmations to make or not to make”, he estimated.
A THIRD VARIANT DETECTED IN JAPAN
After the British and South African variants, the Japanese authorities announced on Monday the discovery of a third variant of Covid-19, identified in four people, including two children, returning from Brazil. Three of them tested positive upon arrival at Tokyo airport. This third variant has the same mutation as the other two, namely great contagiousness.
(ALMOST) NORMAL LIFE
Employees of the public service, building or construction can eat at restaurants, especially in Jarnages, in the Creuse.
VACCINES
BioNTech estimated this Monday to be able to manufacture 2 billion doses of its vaccine in 2021. The German SME, associated with the American giant Pfizer, reached this new estimate taking into account the “new standard” allowing the administration of 6 doses per vial to the instead of 5, according to a document posted on its website. BioNTech is also counting on “the expansion of its current facilities”, including the start-up, expected in February, of another European production site in Marburg, Germany.
BALANCE SHEET
The Covid-19 pandemic has killed at least 1,934,693 people worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December 2019, according to a report established by AFP in from official sources Monday at 12 noon.
More than 90,196,880 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed since the start of the epidemic, of which at least 55,592,800 people are now considered cured.
The figures are based on reports communicated daily by the health authorities in each country and exclude ex post revisions made by statistical agencies, such as in Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom.
REOPENING OF SCHOOLS IN GREECE
Primary schools and kindergartens reopened in Greece on Monday after two months of closure due to the pandemic but the strict containment imposed since November 7 will continue at least until January 18, according to the government.
More than 850,000 students under the age of twelve have returned to their schools, closed since November 16, a week after the strict confinement imposed to counter the second wave of the pandemic, much more virulent than that of spring.
STATE OF HEALTH EMERGENCY
The new extension of the state of health emergency until June should be debated on January 18 before the National Assembly and on the 25th before the Senate, AFP learned from parliamentary sources after meetings Monday between Jean Castex and the chairmen of parliamentary groups.
The bill is due to be presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. In the process, the extension of this exceptional regime, which allows the implementation of binding measures to fight against the Covid-19 epidemic, will be debated in committee in the Assembly from Thursday.
With this new text, the executive plans to postpone until June the end of the state of health emergency which was initially supposed to end on February 16.
CASES OF THE BRITISH VARIANT IN LILLE
Two cases of the British variant of the coronavirus were confirmed in Lille on Sunday by resorting to sequencing, LCI learned from the Hauts-de-France Regional Health Agency.
These two cases, which date from the end of December, are located “in Lille, in the medical professional environment”, and are “closed in terms of epidemiological monitoring”, explained to the press the Director General of the ARS Hauts-de-France Benoît Vallet.
For another potential case, in “a truck driver who was returning from England and was screened on leaving the UK”, the results of the sequencing are not yet known, Mr Vallet added.
“We will undoubtedly have in the coming days other confirmations to make or not to make”, he estimated.
ZOONOSES
They were illustrated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Zoonoses are those diseases transmissible from animals to humans, favored by the rapprochement between the two species, thanks to the destruction of natural habitats of wildlife. Today, international institutions and countries are meeting in Paris to relaunch a green diplomacy supposed to take charge of the fight for the protection of biodiversity.
Zoonoses at the heart of the “One Planet Summit”: what are they?
BANKS
Expected in the support measures for businesses, while the latter will continue to suffer from the effects of the curfew, Bruno Le Maire, guest of France Inter, indicated that he would ask the banks to “defer the repayment of the guaranteed loan by the State from March 1, 2021 to March 1, 2022 “. The sectors still affected by the health measures will be concerned: “hotels, restaurants, perhaps also the world of culture, the world of sport”.
The request should be made to the French Banking Federation on Tuesday.
MARSEILLE
Former mayor who became the first deputy of the town hall of Marseille, Michèle Rubirola wonders about the benefits of the advance of the curfew at 6 p.m. in the Marseille city, like the whole of the Bouches-du-Rhône department. Doctor by profession, the ecologist believes “that a curfew between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. will not necessarily bring something more: why not a re-containment to protect the Marseillaises and the Marseillais, but a real re-containment so that this virus stops circulate? “
The prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône like the town hall have swept aside the hypothesis, “not on the agenda”.
DATA
Belgium and Slovenia are among the countries most affected in relation to their number of inhabitants.