[LIVE FEBRUARY 2] All the developments of the pandemic

By wetretrjyu
04/11/2022
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Whether in Quebec or elsewhere on the planet, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned our lives upside down for almost a year.

Here you will find all the news throughout the day related to this crisis which is affecting the population, governments and the economy.

PLANETARY

Cases: 103,851,556Deaths: 2,252,034

CANADA

Cases: 786,421, including 264,526 in Quebec

Deaths: 20,213, including 9,862 in Quebec

HERE IS ALL THE NEWS FROM TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2

10:57 p.m. | The health situation remains very fragile

Despite the “small deconfinement” announced by the government on Tuesday, caution is still required in the fight against COVID-19 since the situation remains “very fragile”, according to experts.

shocky - stock.adobe.com

22:48 | The opening in the orange zone revives restaurateurs

Restaurants see a tiny light dawning at the end of the long tunnel of the pandemic with the reopening of dining rooms in six regions in orange zones from Monday.

Photo QMI Agency, Mario Beauregard

22h31 | Doses could have been made here last summer

Canada could already produce vaccines against COVID-19 if the government had chosen to invest in existing pharmaceutical factories rather than build new ones.

Photo QMI Agency, Joël Lemay

9:33 p.m. | Museums surprised, but very relieved

Museums breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday. Against all expectations, Prime Minister François Legault gave them the green light for a reopening everywhere in Quebec, starting Monday. But the public will have to wait a little longer before planning a visit.

Photo archives, Stevens Leblanc

9:23 p.m. | We condemn "cinemas to open without films", says Vincent Guzzo

The announcement of the reopening of cinemas in the orange zone should have delighted cinema operators such as Vincent Guzzo and yet...

9:17 p.m. | Slow reopening of theaters in the orange zone

Small glimmer of hope in the cultural community: cinemas, performance halls and theaters in the six regions that pass into the orange zone will be able to reopen their doors from February 26. On the other hand, establishments located in red zones such as Montreal and Quebec will still have to take their troubles patiently.

Photo Fotolia

20h57 | WHO team visits Wuhan Institute of Virology

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived at the Wuhan Institute of Virology on Wednesday morning, as part of their investigation into the origin of the coronavirus in this central Chinese city, noted an AFP team.

Photo by AFP

8:07 p.m. | COVID-19: Maduro claims to 'guarantee' oxygen supply to Brazilian border states

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro assured Tuesday that he was in the process of “guaranteeing” the supply of oxygen to the border states of Roraima and Amazonas, in Brazil, which faces a serious shortage.

“Today three trucks arrived, they are loading, one of them is leaving for Roraima and the other two for Amazonas, and then they will come back,” Maduro said during of an event in Caracas broadcast on the government television channel.

“It will be like this every time, every week, according to their needs,” he continued.

Venezuela has already provided oxygen to Brazil, whose head of government, far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, does not recognize Nicolas Maduro as president, but Juan Guaidó, the leader of the opposition.

8:06 p.m. | Economic recovery: winners and losers

Despite the easing announced by the Legault government on Tuesday, the situation remains extremely difficult for several sectors of the economy, in particular culture and the hotel industry.

7:42 p.m. | Gyms: the reopening in the orange zone coldly welcomed

The owners of training rooms have welcomed the announcement of the relaxations in the orange zone with reservations, since they would have liked certain activities to also be authorized throughout Quebec.

Photo archives, Stevens LeBlanc

7:09 p.m. | Sharp decline in freedoms in 2020 due to anti-pandemic measures

Democratic freedoms have declined in nearly 70% of the world's countries in 2020 due to restrictions caused by the fight against the pandemic, according to a study by the British group The Economist published on Wednesday, emphasizing the decline in democratic regimes .

Photo Adobe Stock

17:03 | More than 600,000 deaths recorded in Latin America

More than 600,000 deaths from COVID-19 have been officially recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean since the start of the pandemic in December 2019, according to a count carried out by AFP on Tuesday at 5 p.m. from reports provided by the health authorities.

AFP

4:55 p.m. | COVID-19: Legault takes stock of the easing of health measures in Quebec

Photo Stevens LeBlanc

4:52 p.m. | Hospitals: “inattention will plunge us back into the same disaster”

The number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 has been closely monitored for a few weeks since it seems to be the indicator that will gauge the decisions that Quebec will make for the rest of the events.

4:10 p.m. | Suffering from COVID-19, she gives birth in a coma

A Wisconsin mother who caught COVID-19 when she was nine months pregnant had to give birth to her daughter while in a coma.

3:28 p.m. | COVID-19: exceptional results in Ontario, decline in Quebec

Ontario posted an exceptionally half its average number of COVID-19 cases for the last seven days on Tuesday, while Quebec rose above 1,000 daily infections.

AFP

3:04 p.m. | Coronavirus: Ireland records record death toll of 101

Ireland recorded its heaviest daily death toll from the coronavirus on Tuesday with 101, bringing to 3,418 the number of deaths deplored by the country of five million inhabitants since the start of the pandemic.

Faced with a formidable third wave, the country has for the first time exceeded the threshold of 100 deaths recorded in one day, according to figures from the Ministry of Health. Of these 101 deaths recorded on Tuesday, 83 occurred in January, the others in February, according to the Ministry of Health.

AFP

Ireland, currently in its third lockdown, faced the first two waves of the pandemic with relatively low numbers of cases and deaths.

[LIVE 2 FEBRUARY] All pandemic developments

But after an easing of restrictions over the Christmas period, the country saw an explosion in the number of cases, so much so that in the first week of January it had the highest infection rate in the world, according to the data compiled by Oxford University.

“The high mortality the country is experiencing right now is linked to the increase in cases we saw a few weeks ago,” Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan said in a statement.

To prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, Prime Minister Micheal Martin announced last week the extension of the confinement until at least March 5.

According to the latest official figures, around 150,500 healthcare workers have received a first dose of the vaccine and the government hopes to vaccinate the entire population by September.

2:04 p.m. | Health restrictions: “We know the recipe for overcoming the pandemic”

After 11 months of the pandemic in the province, the combination of the latest health restrictions, including the implementation of the curfew and the start of vaccination, has really had an impact on the spread of the virus.

1:58 p.m. | The Netherlands is extending many measures against COVID-19 until March 2.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced on Tuesday an extension of most of the COVID-19 measures currently in place in the Netherlands until March 2.

However, he confirmed a reopening of primary schools and daycare centers from February 8, as well as the possibility from February 10 of take-out sales for so-called non-essential stores, which have been closed since December.

1:45 p.m. | Canadians strongly in favor of international travel ban

PHOTO JOEL LEMAY

1:25 p.m. | Spring break will indeed take place this year, confirms the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge.

1:20 p.m. | Vaccines against COVID-19 produced in Montreal: not “before the end of the year” specifies François-Philippe Champagne.

12:21 | Scotland will impose a "supervised quarantine" on all travellers.

All travelers arriving in Scotland will soon have to undergo a “supervised quarantine”, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced on Tuesday, who considers the current arrangements insufficient to combat the spread of the coronavirus epidemic.

"The Scottish Government strongly believes that to minimize the risk of introducing new strains into the country, quarantine must be much more comprehensive," the independence leader told the Scottish Parliament.

“I can therefore confirm today that we intend to introduce a mandatory and supervised quarantine for anyone arriving directly in Scotland, regardless of their country of origin,” she continued. , promising to give more details soon.

In the United Kingdom, the European country hardest hit by the pandemic with more than 108,000 dead, each province makes its own decisions in terms of managing the health crisis.

Last week, the British government announced that for England, only travelers from 30 countries considered to be at "high risk" due to a variant of COVID-19 will soon be subject to a very strict quarantine. supervised, confined to a hotel after their arrival. Travelers from other countries simply need to self-isolate at home for 10 days and have a negative test.

11:35 am | Companies Precision NanoSystems and Novavax will produce tens of millions of doses of the COVID vaccine in Canada once their facilities have been certified by the authorities, announced Justin Trudeau.

11:34 am | COVID-19: the situation remains stable in the greater Quebec City region

A few hours before the long-awaited press briefing by the Prime Minister concerning a relaxation of the measures, the Quebec City region and those to the east continue to present a positive balance sheet.

Photo archives Didier Debusschère

11h06 | Quebec has 1,053 additional cases and 38 new deaths; hospitalizations continue to decline, with a decrease of 34.

10:48 am | The Ministry of Health still does not know when it will be able to publish the written opinions of Dr. Horacio Arruda that François Legault undertook to make public two weeks ago now.

Photo Stevens Leblanc

10h36 | A dinner with friends at the home of one of the Quebec leaders of the conspiracy movement, Steeve "l'Artiss" Charland, is likely to be expensive for those who took part in it last Saturday in the Laurentians.

FACEBOOK PHOTO

10:10 a.m. | Sweden will reserve the AstraZeneca vaccine for those under 65.

Sweden is only recommending the Covid-19 vaccine from the Swedish-British laboratory AstraZeneca for people under the age of 65 due to a lack of data for older people, health authorities announced on Tuesday.

According to the public health agency, AstraZeneca's vaccine (which was approved for use last week by the EU for those over 18, with no age limits) should "in the first place" be offered to people aged 18 to 65.

Conversely, the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines must now first be offered to people aged 65 and over.

The first country to make a similar decision was the German vaccine authority, which in late January recommended not allowing Astra-Zeneca for people aged 65 and over, judging that there was " not enough data" on its effectiveness in this age group.

The Austrian National Vaccination Committee aligned itself with the position on Sunday.

While overall efficacy has been estimated at around 60%, “there are not yet enough results in participants over 55 to have a figure on the performance of the vaccine in this age group “, conceded the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

However, "there is nothing to say that it does not have protective effects or that it would have negative effects on these age groups", underlined Tuesday Soren Andersson, who is responsible for the unit of the vaccination programs at the Swedish Health Agency.

10:04 a.m. | In addition to asking for the curfew to be lifted in certain regions of Quebec, the Parti Québécois is asking the government to reopen training rooms throughout the province, for the health of Quebecers.

9:24 am | Vietnam: new wave of coronavirus cases, presence of the British variant.

AFP

Vietnam is affected by a new wave of contamination with the presence of a variant of the more contagious coronavirus spotted in Great Britain, announced Tuesday the authorities which have put in place restrictions to contain it.

After the discovery of more than 300 cases in less than a week, the closure of schools before the holidays on the occasion of Tet, the Lunar New Year which begins this year on February 12, has been brought forward and hundreds thousands of people are confined.

The government has announced that 12 cases linked to the UK variant have so far been identified.

The country announced its first cases of coronavirus at the end of January. Before these new cases, this communist country of 96 million people had recorded just over 1,500 cases and only 35 deaths. His handling of the pandemic had been praised.

The new wave of cases, which appeared in the North, has spread to the center and the South and is proving more complicated to contain, according to the authorities.

“We were very quick on quarantine and contact tracing,” said Mai Tien Dung, Chairman of the Government Office, “but weeding out new outbreaks depends on our whole political system, the authorities and the government. people ".

8:19 am | Spain strictly limits flights from South Africa and Brazil.

The Spanish government announced Tuesday a strict limitation of flights from South Africa and Brazil for two weeks due to fears linked to variants of the coronavirus detected in these two countries.

Specifically, from Wednesday, only passengers from these two countries who have Spanish or Andorran nationality, or who reside in Spain or Andorra will be able to enter Spain. An exception will however be made for passengers in transit who will not be allowed to leave the airport.

8:19 am | Epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic in Europe in recent days, Portugal has appealed for international help to relieve saturated hospitals but, according to several experts, the country was on Tuesday on the verge of reaching the peak of this third wave. .

AFP

8:13 am | The Japanese government on Tuesday extended the state of emergency linked to the coronavirus in Tokyo and in other departments of the country, less than six months before the Olympic Games, postponed due to the pandemic.

AFP

8:06 am | Sûreté du Québec officers carried out 1,440 home checks of travelers in mandatory isolation between January 25 and 31.

7:38 am | The Sputnik V vaccine, about which Russia had been accused of lacking transparency, is 91.6% effective against symptomatic forms of COVID-19, according to results published Tuesday in the medical journal The Lancet and validated by experts. independent experts.

AFP

4h37 | The Tokyo Olympics, postponed last year from 2020 to 2021 due to the pandemic, will take place “whatever happens” concerning the evolution of the health crisis, assured Tuesday the president of the Japanese organizing committee Yoshiro Mori.

1h00 | Two pharmaceutical companies here criticize Ottawa's lack of support for the development of Canadian vaccines against COVID-19 at a time when deliveries of doses are trickling in from abroad.

1h00 | While the country's carriers had to end all their connections with Mexico and the Caribbean on Sunday, those in the United States continue to offer Quebecers daily departures to these same destinations with complete impunity.

0h00 | François Legault will give the green light to the reopening of non-essential businesses and personal care and aesthetics businesses throughout Quebec. Everything indicates that the return to color coding will allow restaurants to welcome dine-in customers again in regions less affected by the virus (orange zone), where the curfew would be pushed back to 9:30 p.m.