(Paris) New measures, new reports and highlights: an update on the latest developments in the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.
Posted at 8:37
The boss of Paris-2024 deprived of Olympic Games
The president of the Olympic Games-2024 organizing committee Tony Estanguet, positive for COVID-19, will not travel to Beijing for the 2022 Olympic Games, Paris-2024 announced Monday to AFP.
Mr. Estanguet, who suffers from “mild symptoms” according to the organizing committee, was to come to the Chinese capital during the first part of the 2022 Olympics which begin on Friday.
More precarious jobs for young Britons (study)
Young Britons, particularly affected by unemployment at the height of the pandemic, quickly found work, but for many of them they are in more precarious jobs, warns the think tank Resolution Foundation.
Three quarters of young people aged 18 to 24 who had a job before the pandemic but were unemployed during the strict winter 2021 confinement “had returned to work” in October, summarizes the foundation in a press release accompanying the publication of a study on Monday.
Eurozone: GDP rebound
Gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro zone recorded historic growth of 5.2% last year, as in the whole of the EU, in line with forecasts from Brussels, according to a first estimate published on Monday by Eurostat.
These figures confirm that the economy has recovered well after a collapse linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, GDP recorded a no less historic fall of 6.4% in the 19 countries sharing the single currency and 5.9% within the European Union, according to the European statistics office.
Cyprus: unvaccinated priests threatened with suspension
The head of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus has warned that he will suspend a dozen unvaccinated priests from Tuesday if they continue to refuse vaccination against COVID-19 and encourage the faithful to do so.
Priests and theologians refuse to be vaccinated, for “selfish reasons”, and influence the faithful, accused Archbishop Chrysostomos II.
According to him, 27 of the 123 priests in his diocese have not been vaccinated, including 15 who are exempt for medical reasons.
Disinformation: Spotify reacts
Accused of giving free rein to misinformation about COVID-19 in its podcasts, Swedish audio streaming giant Spotify announced measures on Sunday to try to address the growing controversy led by folk-rock legend Neil Young.
The CEO and founder of the world number one, Daniel Ek, announced measures in the evening, including the introduction of links in all his podcasts evoking COVID-19, which will guide his users to factual and scientifically sourced information.
More than 5.66 million dead
The pandemic has officially killed more than 5.66 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, out of more than 373 million confirmed contaminations, according to a report established by AFP on Monday at 6 a.m.
The United States is the country with the most deaths (884,260), ahead of Brazil (626,854) and India (495,050).
In the past seven days, the Europe region has recorded the most cases in the world (11.58 million), or 50% of the global total, and the most deaths (22,597 dead), or 34% of the total.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to COVID-19, that the toll of the pandemic could be two to three times higher than that officially established.