According to an assessment by France-Presse, more than two billion doses of vaccines against Covid-19 have been administered worldwide and several states have decided to open vaccination to people over 12 years old, while the G7 health ministers they meet to discuss new ways of immunization.
At least 2,019,696,022 doses have been injected in 215 countries or territories, less than six months after the first vaccination campaigns began in December 2020. Outside the micro-states, Israel remains the country with the most advanced vaccination campaign , with nearly six in ten Israelis already fully vaccinated. Leading also countries such as Canada (59% of the population received at least one dose there), the United Kingdom (58.3%), Chile (56.6%) and the United States (51%), while in in the EU, 254.98 million doses have been administered to 39% of its inhabitants. But in Africa, hit by a new increase in cases, vaccine deliveries are almost at a standstill, the World Health Organization (WHO) denounced Thursday. Only 2% of Africans to date have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Of the six countries that have not yet vaccinated, four are in Africa: Tanzania, Burundi, Chad and Eritrea.
Africa is not ready to face a third wave of pandemic, the WHO has also warned. “Many hospitals and clinics in Africa are far from ready to face a drastic increase in the number of critically ill patients,” warned Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, regional director of the Organization.
The United States has announced that it will administer 60 million doses of vaccines overseas via the Covax system and 20 million doses to its “immediate neighbors”. So that vaccination does not remain a privilege of “high-income” countries in the sense of the World Bank (16% of humanity but 37% of the doses injected), today the health ministers of the great powers of the G7 Oxford are meeting to discuss sharing vaccines with poor countries. “We will work to try to reach the goal of making the vaccine available worldwide,” British Health Minister Matt Hancock promised upon his arrival. Several countries have also decided to open up vaccination to teenagers.
Italy, the European country most affected by the pandemic after the United Kingdom, opened the vaccination against Covid-19 on Thursday to all age groups starting from 12 years. In France, young people between the ages of 12 and 18 will be able to be vaccinated against Covid-19 from June 15, President Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 3.69 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to an assessment established by AFP from official sources, the United States (595,833 dead) and Brazil (467,706) the most battered. Although several countries continue to reduce their health systems, others are deciding on new precautionary measures. The UK has announced the return of mandatory quarantine of up to ten days for passengers arriving from Portugal. This measure is explained by the almost doubling of the Covid-19 positivity rate in this country and the presence of a “kind of Nepalese mutation” of the Delta variant, according to Transport Minister Grant Shapps.
Colombia recorded 545 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, its record since the outbreak began, and has surpassed the only one of 90,000 deaths to date, in the midst of an anti-government social crisis. In Asia, great concern prevails in several countries, which in recent weeks have seen an increase in the number of coronavirus cases. In Taiwan, the recent epidemic of Covid-19 cases has led the island to intensify its vaccination and screening policy, particularly within its semiconductor manufacturing facilities for fear of a worsening global shortage of these valuable components. In recent weeks, the number of cases has jumped on the island, where the death toll now stands at around 10,000 infections and 166 deaths. In Japan, Tokyo and nine other departments will remain in a state of health emergency until June 20, a month before the Olympic Games, due to a fourth wave of infections. But the chairman of the Tokyo-2020 organizing committee, Seiko Hashimoto, was reassuring. We’ll see.
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