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Sweden appeared to be heading for a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Health Agency said, as it tightened crowd restrictions for stores amid a recent surge in new cases and a rapid spread of variants of the virus considered more infectious. .
Sweden, which has avoided lockdowns during the pandemic, recorded 11,804 new cases of coronavirus since Friday, statistics from the health agency showed today, an increase from the 10,933 cases reported during the corresponding period last week.
“It certainly looks like we are heading into a third wave,” chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told a news conference.
“It’s starting to have an impact on intensive care. We don’t see a dramatic increase, but not the decrease that we had for a while.”
The Health Agency recommended that crowds in stores be limited to 500 people, adding to a number of new restrictions in the last week, such as limited opening hours for bars, cafes and restaurants and stricter rules for use. of face masks.
Dr. Tegnell also said that recent studies pointed to the AstraZenenca Covid vaccine being effective for people over the age of 65 and that Sweden was considering changing its recommendation not to give it to older people.
“The AstraZeneca vaccine has earned an undeserved bad reputation,” he said.
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While new cases have increased, the death toll is still lower than in previous months.
The country of 10 million people registered 56 new deaths, the lowest number on the weekend since the beginning of November, bringing the total to 12,882. Recorded deaths have occurred over several days and sometimes weeks.
Sweden’s per capita death rate is many times higher than that of its Nordic neighbors, but lower than that of several European countries that opted for blockades.
Austria breaks ranks with the EU to produce vaccines with Denmark and Israel
Austria broke ranks with the European Union saying it would work together with Israel and Denmark to produce second-generation vaccines against coronavirus mutations.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Austria and Denmark, as members of the First Mover Group he founded, would work with Israel on the production of vaccines against coronavirus mutations and jointly investigate treatment options.
The announcement is a rebuke to the EU’s joint vaccine procurement program for member states, which has been criticized for being too slow to agree deals with manufacturers.
Production problems and supply chain bottlenecks have also slowed deliveries to the block, delaying the launch of vaccines.
While the decision to agree that the EU purchases vaccines for member states was correct in principle, Kurz said the European Medicines Agency had been too slow to approve the vaccines and criticized supply bottlenecks from pharmaceutical companies.
“Therefore, we must prepare for more mutations and we must no longer rely solely on the EU for the production of second-generation vaccines,” he said in a statement.
Experts estimate that Austria will have to vaccinate two-thirds of the population, which is equivalent to more than six million people a year, in the coming years, Kurz said.
Kurz will travel to Israel this week with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to see up close the rapid deployment of the vaccine in Israel.
He said he would inspect pharmaceutical companies with domestic production, including Pfizer, Novartis. Polymun and Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as speaking to today’s leading scientists and physicians.
Germany last month established a task force to address bottlenecks in the vaccine production supply chain and boost local manufacturing to guard against future pandemics.
A spokesman for the European Commission said the joint EU vaccine procurement has not fallen apart when asked about individual countries receiving injections from Russia or China that do not have authorization from the bloc.
“It is not that the strategy has fallen apart,” said Commission spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker, adding that EU countries have the right to seal their own contracts with producers beyond those the Commission agrees to for the bloc. .
“For our vaccines, we go through the European Medicines Agency because we want to guarantee efficacy and safety. What member states do in addition to that is their responsibility.”
He said that emergency authorizations from certain member states may be more risky than the full EMA procedure.
Merkel proposes easing some virus restrictions in Germany starting Monday
German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to allow more socialization between households starting next week as part of plans to gradually loosen restrictions on the virus, a draft text showed.
Private meetings between two households, not exceeding five adults, will be allowed again “as of March 8,” according to the document seen by AFP.
He also proposes that flower shops, bookstores, and garden centers reopen soon.
The text has not yet been agreed upon by Germany’s 16 regional prime ministers, who are due to hold talks with Merkel on Wednesday.
Unemployment in Spain reached 4 million in February due to pandemic restrictions
The number of people in Spain who registered as unemployed reached four million in February, official data showed, as Covid-19 restrictions affected the ailing economy and led to the first month of job destruction since last May. .
Unemployment claims were up 1.12% from the previous month, or 44,436 people, putting four million people out of work for the first time since early 2016, data from the Labor Ministry showed, marking the fifth increase. consecutive monthly unemployment rate.
The number of unemployed was 23.5% higher than in February 2020.
“The increase in unemployment, caused by the third wave, is bad news, reflecting the structural failures in the labor market that are accentuated by the pandemic,” Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz tweeted.
February was also the first month of net job destruction since May 2020, with Spain losing some 30,211 jobs during the month, seasonally adjusted data from the Social Security Ministry showed.
But the number of people supported by Spain’s ERTE licensing program dropped by almost 29,000 to 899,383.
“These figures have been more or less stable since September, indicating that the second and third waves of the pandemic have had a much smaller effect than the first in this regard,” the ministry said in a statement.
Iraq receives first Covid vaccines, gift from China
Iraq has received 50,000 Sinopharm vaccines donated by China, the Health Ministry announced, launching a long-awaited vaccination campaign.
A spokesman for the Health Ministry told reporters that the first delivery in the early hours meant that vaccines could start today.
The Health Ministry simultaneously announced that it had agreed with the Chinese ambassador in Baghdad to buy another two million doses, with no details on the payment or timing.
Sinopharm’s affiliate Wuhan Biological Products Institute says its vaccine has an efficacy rate of 72.51%, behind rival hits from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which have rates of 95% and 94.5%. respectively.
The ministry has said that priority will be given to health workers, security forces and the elderly and that the vaccine will be administered free of charge, but has given some other details.
The first blows came as the Iraqi government faced mounting criticism for its handling of the pandemic.
The country has been hit by a second wave of Covid-19 infections, with more than 3,000 new cases reported daily, a few months after they dropped to around 700 a day, and deaths also tripled to around 25. per day in recent weeks.
To stop the spread, Iraq has imposed overnight curfews on weekdays and full closures on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with the mandatory wearing of masks in public.
But there is little commitment from the public or the security forces deployed to enforce the measures, in a country whose health sector has been devastated by decades of war, corruption and underinvestment.
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