“After two years of the pandemic, I cannot say that we are out of it.” In his Christmas address which will be broadcast on Friday, December 24, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, called on the British to be vaccinated against Covid-19. “There is always something wonderful that you can give to your family and to the whole country … It is to get the vaccine, whether it is your first, your second or your booster.”, he says. On the other side of the Channel, the Omicron variant is causing a surging rise in new cases, which are breaking records and have crossed the 100,000 threshold for two consecutive days. Follow our live.
France has over 90,000 new cases. Some 91,608 new cases of contamination by the Covid-19 virus have been recorded in 24 hours, according to figures released Thursday by Public Health France. These are the “worst figures ever recorded since the start of the pandemic”, was alarmed the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
Ecuador makes vaccination compulsory. Vaccination against Covid-19 has been declared compulsory in Ecuador from the age of 5, a world first for this age group, the Ministry of Health announced on Thursday. So far, only a handful of countries have made vaccination compulsory for adults.
Italy imposes the mask outdoors. The Italian government announced Thursday that wearing the surgical mask outdoors will become compulsory throughout Italy. The mask providing superior protection, the FFP2, will be compulsory for going to the cinema, the theater, sporting events or in transport.
US approves treatment from Merck. The Merck laboratory’s Covid-19 pill, intended for high-risk adults, was urgently authorized on Thursday by the US Medicines Agency. The day before, a similar pill developed by Pfizer had already been authorized in the United States.