More than 299 million people have tested positive for the virus worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 5.4 million infected people have died. More than 9.3 billion vaccine doses have been administered.
Boris Johnson has spoken out against mandatory vaccination in the United Kingdom, criticizing vaccination opponents. The British prime minister told media on Thursday (Jan. 6) that vaccination against the coronavirus should remain voluntary. He said he wants to convince people who are still hesitant to get vaccinated. But that task is made more difficult by the spread of misinformation, Johnson said. It’s a tragedy, he said, that the health care system is under so much pressure and that there are people spreading utter nonsense about vaccinations. It’s time he and the government pointed this out, he said. “It’s absolutely wrong. It’s completely counterproductive,” Johnson said.
After a flight from Italy to India, 70 percent of passengers tested positive for the coronavirus. Before departing Milan, passengers already had to show a negative test to be allowed into India. After landing on Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 5), all 160 adults of the 179 passengers were then retested, Indian media reported Thursday, citing officials and the airport chief in Amritsar. After that, 125 people were positive and sent to quarantine, according to television station NDTV. Infection figures in India were low for months after the fierce and deadly Corona wave nearly a year ago. Now they have been rising sharply again for some time. In the country of more than 1.3 billion people, nearly 91,000 new infections had been recorded as of Thursday. However, there is probably a certain number of unreported cases in the infection figures.
After heated debate, the French National Assembly approved the introduction of drastic restrictions for the unvaccinated on Thursday (Dec. 6) in the fight against the Corona pandemic. Under the regulations, the unvaccinated will no longer have access to places such as restaurants, cinemas or long-distance trains. Due to the sharp rise in the number of infections, the government wants to replace the so-called health passport, which until now provided proof of vaccination, negative corona test or recovery, with a new vaccination passport, thus introducing 2-G nationwide. The National Assembly approved the bill in its first reading. Now the Senate must still consider the text.
The Italian government is introducing mandatory vaccination for people over 50. This was decided at a Council of Ministers meeting on Wednesday evening (Jan. 5), Italian media report. Compulsory vaccination for this age group will take effect Feb. 15, and those who fail to comply will be fined at least 600 euros.
France recorded 335,000 new infections within the past 24 hours. This was announced by the French Ministry of Health on Wednesday (Jan. 5). Italy also recorded another peak in new daily infections, with 189,000 cases, health authorities reported. Turkey also reported a daily record of 66,467 new cases since Tuesday. Israel’s Health Ministry reported 12 554 new cases, the most since the pandemic began. In the Netherlands, authorities announced 24,590 new cases. The previous record was 23,713 new cases at the end of November.
- source: nzz.ch/picture: pixabay.com
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