Restrictions on the Delta variant | Countries that have acted again

The Delta variant of the coronavirus worryingly increases the contagion of covid-19 in many countries around the world, where restrictions have intensified, and causes unusual situations like the arrival of the Olympic torch in Tokyo this Friday at a stadium completely empty. Given the progress of the Delta variant, laboratories Pfizer and BioNTech have announced that they will seek authorization for a third dose of their anticovid vaccine to boost its effectiveness.

Preliminary data showed thatThe third dose increases antibody levels five to ten times against the original coronavirus strain and the Beta variant, first discovered in South Africa, compared to the first two doses, according to the companies. They also said that the booster dose would work similarly against the Delta variant, but that they would also develop a specific vaccine against this strain.

The European Union said on Friday that it was “prepared” in case it would be necessary to administer a third dose to its population. At the moment, 65% of EU citizens have a first dose and 47% both. Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides warned that Europe is “in a very fragile situation, due to the increase in cases due to the Delta variant”. “This is not the time for complacency,” he said.

The Delta variant, identified for the first time in India and considered the most contagious, is causing an acceleration of the pandemic which has already recorded more than four million deaths. This has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn that the world is “at a dangerous point”.

At JapanWhere the Delta variant accounts for 30% of cases, the Olympic flame arrived in Tokyo on Friday for a grim ceremony in an empty stadium, after Games organizers banned spectators from most sporting events for fear of covid-19. The ban was decided due to the state of health emergency that the government will put in place in the capital from Monday to August 22, given the local increase in cases.

Many athletes from around the world expected in Tokyo have shown their disappointment, and some, like Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios, have chosen to throw in the towel. The Tokyo Games, which will be held between July 23 and August 8 and which were postponed last year due to the pandemic, will see around 11,000 athletes from 200 countries.

At Thailand, authorities announced new restrictions on Friday, including a nighttime curfew for Bangkok’s 10 million residents, due to the increase in cases.

This Friday, Indonesia received from Singapore oxygen cylinders and protective gear to support a health system collapsed by the worst pandemic wave to date. And in Australia, the city of Sydney has tightened containment after a record of contaminations.

In the archipelago of FijiIn the Pacific, the authorities have been more radical and have decreed that “no punctures, no work”. Thus, all employees, in the public and private sectors, will have to be vaccinated in the coming weeks and will have to take vacations if they have not received their first injection on August 15 and could be made redundant if the second is not. administered before November. 1.

Almost 16 months after a pandemic that shocked the whole world, more than 185 million contaminations have accumulated, according to official reports which, in the opinion of the WHO, could be much lower than reality.

As of Thursday, 8,776 new deaths and 513,198 infections were recorded worldwide. The countries with the most deaths are Brazil with 1,639, India (911) and Indonesia (871). In Latin America and the Caribbean, the region of the world with the most deaths from the virus with more than 1.3 million people, efforts continue to accelerate vaccination.

In Cuba, the official vaccine candidate against covid-19, dubbed Sovereign 2, has achieved an efficacy of 91.2% if the three planned doses are applied, reported the laboratory that developed it.

This Friday, a spokesperson for the Gavi Vaccination Alliance, which has created with the World Health Organization (WHO) the Covax mechanism for the distribution of anti-covid vaccines in low-income countries, a confirmed that Venezuela has made the corresponding payments to Covax and you will receive the doses of the antiviral vaccine as soon as they are available. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro issued an ultimatum to Covax on Sunday. “Either they send us the vaccines or they give us the money back,” the president said.