The situation in France

Hospitals and intensive care units continue to fill, with the latter caring for more than 2,752 Covid-19 patients on Monday, according to Public Health France. A total of 1,505 coronavirus patients were hospitalized on Monday, with a total of 14,527 beds occupied by these patients. On the ICU side, including the ICU, 379 new admissions were counted for a total of 2,752 patients.

231 patients died in the hospital compared to 48 the previous day. In total, more than 120,000 people have died of Covid-19 in France since the beginning of the pandemic. Vaccination continued to advance: 77.6% of the population received at least one dose, ie 52,314,119 people, 76% had a full schedule and 15,075,266 people received a booster dose since the campaign started in September.

For its part, the Science Council warned on Monday of the risk of “rapid growth in France” of the Omicron variant, the effects of which could be felt “in the coming weeks”. The first available information on this variant of Sars-CoV-2 suggests that it could “circulate faster than initially expected in Europe by gradually replacing the delta variant in the first few weeks of 2022,” he emphasizes in one Opinion dated December 8th and published Monday.

Norway is taking further action

No alcohol in bars or restaurants, speeding up vaccination, generalizing teleworking … Norway unveiled a new package of health measures in the face of Covid on Monday after the publication of alarming forecasts. Without any action – including those already in place – this Scandinavian country of 5.4 million people could see between 90,000 and 300,000 new cases of Covid per day and 50 to 200 daily hospital admissions in three weeks, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) warned. . in the morning.

The high hypothesis of this range roughly equates to the number of people officially infected with the virus since the pandemic began in Norway, which hit 317,870 on Monday, including 1,136 who died from it. “Now it’s getting serious,” said Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre at a press conference called at short notice.

The continued spread of the Delta variant and the emergence of a new Omicron variant, which is considered to be more contagious, could lead to a “complete overload of the health system,” he emphasized. Barely a week after tightening health measures, the government has therefore tightened the screw again. The serving of alcohol in bars and restaurants is banned, but was possible until midnight and should mean the end of the traditional employer-organized parties before Christmas. One of these “Julebord” became the focus of the Omicron variant in Oslo at the end of November. Like the other measures, this ban comes into force overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday and lasts for four weeks until further notice.

Telework will be made compulsory wherever possible, mask requirements will be expanded, and access to public swimming pools and sports halls will be restricted to certain population groups. It is also recommended to cancel sporting events. Vaccination is also sped up by shortening the interval between the second and third injections to 4.5 months for those over 45 and health workers. A reminder should be offered to everyone in these categories by mid-January. Norway has had a record of contamination and hospital stays for several days. According to the FHI, 958 cases of the Omicron variant had been detected in the country by Monday, 472 of them in Oslo.

The balance of the world

At least the pandemic did 5,304,397 million deaths worldwide since the end of 2019, according to a report compiled by AFP from official sources, Monday at 11:00 GMT.

the United States are the country with the most bereaved families 798,682 dead, ahead of Brazil (616,878), India (475,636), Mexico (296,672) and Russia (290,604).

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, that the toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher worldwide.

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