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The pandemic has already cost more than 1.7 million. people and is still active in much of the world, but vaccination campaigns recently launched in several countries raise hopes that 2021 will bring a long-awaited breakthrough.
The first doses of the vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, were delivered to Italy, Spain and France, which were severely affected by the pandemic, on Saturday morning in preparation for vaccines for nursing homes and medical staff. frontline of COVID-19.
“We will regain our freedom, we will be able to hug each other again,” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said, urging Italians to get vaccinated.
PHOTO GALLERY. The first vaccines against the coronavirus arrived in Lithuania
On December 21, the EU Medicines Agency authorized the distribution of Pfizer-BioNTech in the Community. Vaccination of people on the other side of the block will begin the same day, next Sunday.
Several countries, including France, Spain, Japan, Denmark, Lebanon, Germany, Australia, and the Netherlands, have already reported cases of new strains of coronavirus infection. This message is alarming for health services, which are already under heavy pressure.
To date, more than 25 million cases of coronavirus infection show data from official sources, according to the AFP news agency on Friday.
Russia said on Saturday that the number of COVID-19 cases detected in the country has already exceeded three million.
In the UK, the death toll from the coronavirus topped 70,000 on Friday and the latest strain of the pathogen is spreading rapidly in the country.
As of Saturday, another 6 million have been subject to strict quarantine in Britain. people living in the south and east of the country, forcing some 24 million people to close their homes across the country. population.
The third national quarantine also came into effect in Austria on Saturday. Shops have been closed in the country, except for the most essential ones, but the ski resorts are still in operation.
The instruction not to leave without the necessary necessity and the curfew in Austria are valid until January 24.
New option
In France, the first case of a new variant of coronavirus infection was detected in a British man who arrived from London on December 19, the Health Ministry reported late Friday.
The patient had no symptoms of the disease, but was isolated at his home in the city of Tours, in central France. The health services have discovered which doctors have been in contact with the patient, the ministry said in a statement.
Spain announced on Saturday that four cases of a new strain of coronavirus had been confirmed in the capital, Madrid.
Antonio Zapatero, deputy director of the Health Service of the Community of Madrid, said that the condition of these patients was not serious.
“There is no need to worry,” he emphasized.
Experts consider the latest strain of coronavirus to be much more contagious, but people infected with it are unlikely to become more severe than has been seen so far during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, more than 50 countries have restricted access to Great Britain, where this option was first discovered.
After France lifted its two-day ban on southern England truck drivers, even if their coronavirus test came back negative, traffic congestion in Britain began to ease.
A similar mutation in the coronavirus was found in some infected people in South Africa, but on Friday the country rejected Britain’s claims that the virus could be even more contagious or dangerous than that found in the UK.
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