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In dealing with the new coronavirus mutation, the EU Commission has spoken out against blanket travel bans to and from Britain. According to a recommendation to Member States, freight traffic in particular should be maintained, according to the same principle that applied after the uncoordinated border closures during the first corona wave in spring.
No quarantine should be ordered for truck drivers; testing obligations should only apply if this does not affect freight traffic. Travelers should be able to return home.
Britain has been largely isolated from continental Europe since Sunday night after the mutated virus was discovered there. France closed the route through the English Channel, which is important for the food supply. Following the commission’s recommendation, the blockade was expected to be lifted.
Proposals from the EU Commission are not binding on EU states, as border closures are the responsibility of the respective countries. France announced in the evening that it wanted to loosen its lock. London’s planes, ships and Eurostar train could return to operation from Wednesday morning, Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said on Twitter Tuesday night. French citizens, people residing in France, and other authorized travelers should have a negative corona test.
“Good progress today and a deal with the French government,” British Transport Minister Grant Shapps reported in the evening. Announced information for the night transport companies.
According to information from the dpa news agency, the EU Commission assumes that the mutated coronavirus discovered in England has already reached several EU countries. Therefore, the closure of borders would not make sense. Britain has one of the best detection methods, so it was obvious that the mutation was detected there early, he said. But it has already been noticed in Denmark and the Netherlands.
The coronavirus reaches Antarctica
The coronavirus has reached a research station in Antarctica and has now reached every continent. At least 36 people infected with corona have been registered at the “Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme” station in Chile. The infected were 26 soldiers and 10 civilians from a maintenance company, Chilean media reported this Monday night (local time), citing the army that operates the station.
For months, the southern continent had been one of the last places where you could quietly hang out with people in locked rooms. The strict measures helped prevent a crown outbreak. Countries with research stations in Antarctica quickly issued bans on cruise ships and other visitors that fail to provide essential supplies. So each of the twelve stations became its own bubble.
The newspaper Third reported last week that the crew of the amphibious landing ship Sergeant Aldea After a stay at the “Bernardo-O’Higgins Station” due to three cases of corona, he entered quarantine. The ship had transported maintenance personnel and supplies for the station. Those infected from the research station were transferred to the city of Punta Arenas in Patagonia, which is considered the starting point for Antarctic expeditions. The “Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme” station is located in the extreme north of the Antarctic Peninsula in West Antarctica.
The base is one of more than a dozen Chilean stations in Antarctica and is named after Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme, who fought for independence from Spain. The station was built in 1948, making it one of the longest continuously operating stations on the Antarctic continent.
The United States will have more deaths than ever in 2020
2020 will go down as the deadliest year in US history with more than three million deaths. These are estimates of preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which were released Tuesday. The corona pandemic, with more than 300,000 deaths, is the main driver of this record, but not only: a total of at least 400,000 more people died in the United States this year than in 2019.
According to preliminary statistics, there will be more than 3.2 million deaths in the US in 2020, which would be a 15 percent increase. Faced with the corona pandemic, the number of deaths continues to rise in the last days of the year.
There has been no such percentage increase since 1918. At that time, tens of thousands of American soldiers fell on the battlefields of World War I and hundreds of thousands died from a pandemic: the Spanish flu. The number of deaths increased by 46 percent compared to the previous year in 1917.
According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 319,000 people died from Covid-19 in the United States this year, as of December 22. Before the pandemic hit, the trend in death statistics in the United States was very different. Mortality even decreased slightly in 2019, with fewer people dying from heart disease and cancer. Life expectancy increased several weeks for the second year in a row. But 2020 should statistically lead to a loss of a full three years of life expectancy, CDC employee Robert Anderson said.
In deaths from causes other than Covid-19, an increase in fatal pneumonia was seen earlier this year. At the beginning of the pandemic, this could include cases not recognized as coronavirus infections. Anderson also said that more people died of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia. The coronavirus could still be involved here as well, as it could have weakened the sick.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the United States was in the midst of an epidemic of drug overdose death. The numbers for 2020 are not yet available, but a report found more than 81,000 deaths between May 2019 and May 2020. Experts suspect that a decrease in therapies and individual care could be a factor.
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But the coronavirus could also play a role here: The pandemic presented supply problems for distributors. They would have stretched the drugs by mixing cheap fentanyl with heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. “I don’t think many people have started taking drugs because of Covid,” says Shannon Monnat, a researcher at Syracuse University. “Rather, I think they were people who were already using drugs, who were more contaminated (this year).”
EU Commission approves corona vaccine
The EU Commission has approved the corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer. The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Monday. “Today we are adding an important chapter to the fight against Covid-19,” von der Leyen said.
In the afternoon, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended a conditional marketing authorization for the preparation from the Mainz-based company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer. The EU Commission has now followed the EMA’s recommendation. The EMA carefully reviewed the vaccine, von der Leyen said. The test showed that the vaccine was safe and effective against the coronavirus. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) spoke of a “milestone in the fight against pandemics” after the EMA recommendation. The Biontech and Pfizer vaccine is the first coronavirus vaccine that can be used in the EU. This means that vaccinations against the coronavirus can also start in the European Union in a few days.
After the vaccine has been approved, Germany will receive the first vaccine dose delivery from Biontech on December 26. The Berlin health administration announced that 151,125 doses of vaccine are expected. The first doses of the vaccine should be injected this Sunday. Until then, the federally owned Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) should verify and approve vaccine lots.
First, people over 80 years of age, nursing home staff and residents, as well as healthcare workers at very high risk of infection should be vaccinated. According to clinical studies, Biontech indicates the effectiveness of the vaccine with 95 percent.
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, three to four million doses could be available in January. In the first quarter, Spahn expects between 11 and 13 million doses of vaccines. Since the preparation has to be administered twice, this amount would be sufficient for approximately 5.5 to 6.5 million people. In total, the federal government has insured more than 300 million cans, from Biontech and other manufacturers, through national and key agreements across the EU.
Biden gets vaccinated in front of the camera
US President-designate Joe Biden had been vaccinated against the corona virus in front of the camera. The 78-year-old man received a syringe with the drug from Biontech and Pfizer on Monday (local time) in Newark, New Jersey. His wife, Jill, was also vaccinated.
The vaccination program in the USA has been in place since the beginning of December. Then, Biden called on all Americans to get vaccinated as soon as a vaccine is available to them. “There is nothing to worry about,” he said. Outgoing Vice President Mike Pence has already been vaccinated. Former presidents Barack Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton have agreed to publicly inject themselves to demonstrate their confidence in the safety of funds and to allay the fears of the population.
New variant of the virus most contagious for children?
According to British scientists, the new variant of the virus may be more contagious to children than the old ones. “There is some evidence that it has a greater tendency to infect children,” says Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, a member of the Nervtag think tank that advises the government. The exact mechanism is not yet clear. “But we can see it from the data.” According to her colleague Wendy Barclay, some mutations affect the way the virus enters a cell. This could mean that “children can be as susceptible to this virus as adults.”
