China is trying to reassure. The authorities claimed Thursday that the renewed contamination of the coronavirus, including Beijing, was “under control”, leaving the risk of further spread of the pandemic which has passed the milestone of 450 000 deaths in the world, a balance sheet that has doubled in a month and a half. But in the capital, thousands of people lined up Thursday to undergo a screening. The chinese ministry of Health reported 21 patients over the course of the last 24 hours in the city of 21 million inhabitants, bringing to 158 the number of cases reported since last week.
life had regained near normal after two months without any contamination. But the appearance a few days ago in the city a new focus of infection has raised fears of a second wave of contaminations. The local authorities have been engaged since a few days, an extensive screening campaign of residents and disinfection of the restaurants. But the epidemic in the capital would be “under control”, has provided the epidemiologist-in-chief of the Center for control and prevention of diseases (CDC), Wu Zunyou.
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“people were afraid to go outside”
The wholesale market Xinfadi, the main place of supply of fruits and vegetables to the capital, is believed to be the source of new infection. Thirty residential areas have been placed in quarantine and all schools have been closed until further notice.
“We don’t have a lot of clients these days, people are afraid to go out”, has entrusted to the Agence France-Presse the head chef of a restaurant, while he was lining up for a screening in front of a stage to the east of the city. The municipality has called on its residents to avoid non-essential travel, and has greatly reduced the routes. People living in areas classified as “moderate or high risk” are, for their part, prohibition to leave the city.
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A vaccine before the end of 2020 ?
The world Health Organization said Thursday hoped “very optimistic” that hundreds of millions of doses of a vaccine would be available at the end of the year, and two billion doses in 2021. But the vaccine, of which over 200 are in the study through the world, is yet to be developed. “If we have a lot of luck, there will be one or two candidates before the end of this year,” said the scientific director of the WHO, Soumya Swaminathan.
The pandemic also strikes the full force of the economies. In the United States, new applications for unemployment benefits amounted to 1.5 million last week, according to figures released Thursday. In Europe, the continent that comes up more and more to the normal from the point of view of health, the economic consequences require plans massive aid. The Bank of England announced on Thursday further increase of 100 billion pounds to its asset purchase program to deal with an economic context that is “unusually uncertain”.
As to the european Union, it must “act quickly and decisively” in with before the end of July on its recovery plan of € 750 billion, stressed on Thursday the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Spain has submitted a plan of 4.2 billion euros to relaunch tourism, a pillar of its economy.
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12 000 deaths in India
In central and South Asia, where the pandemic, after having taken a long time to settle, threatening to explode the number of sick and dead. The governor of Kabul, who estimated that one million the number of people infected in the only afghan capital, anticipates a “disaster”, citing “reports of a rise in suspicious deaths and people burying corpses at night”. The worst seems to happen in this war-ravaged country, despite the official statistics which does not start a count down for that 27 000 people to 500 deaths.
Pakistan has also long known of the figures of the Covid-19 reassuring. But the statistics are packed these last few weeks. In the hospital of Peshawar, it returns patients home “almost daily”, due to lack of beds, or oxygen, according to the surgeon Samra Fakhar. This country’s health-care system deficient account officially 160 000 patients, but the government fears that they are 1.2 million at the end of July. As for India, with a population of 1.3 billion people, it is for the moment nearly 370 000 patients and 12 000 deaths, of which 2 000 announced Wednesday.
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20 000 new cases each day in the United States
According to Archie Clements, an epidemiologist at the australian university Curtin, “South Asia is at an earlier level on the curve” of the pandemic compared to Latin America, and an increase in “exponential” in the number of cases is to be feared. But for now, this is Latin America and especially the giant brazilian that show the greatest growth: second is the most affected country in the world, behind the United States, Brazil deplores the total 46 510 deaths, according to data that could be very far from reality. The country has recorded 183 686 new cases in a week, from 11 to 17 June, ahead of the United States (158 836), India (77 482), Chile (72 of 132) and Russia (59 644).
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The government argues, however, that the situation is under control and the déconfinement is proceeding steadily in most States. Situation is also confused in Russia, a country with more than 560 000 to less than 7.700 dead, where no less than 16 cities or regions have announced that they would organize not the military parades intended on 24 June by president Vladimir Putin, and where the federal Agency of medical supervision revealed Thursday that nearly 500 caregivers had succumbed to the virus since the beginning of the epidemic. The United States on their side, who remain the country’s most grief-stricken in the world by the pandemic, with more than 117 000 people dead and more than 2.1 million diagnosed cases, were able to congratulate himself on Wednesday to have counted fewer than 1 000 people died daily during seven days in a row, an encouraging sign even if there are about 20,000 new cases continue to be detected each day.
