LIVE – Covid-19: a vaccine coming?

It is a trend that is confirmed. A few days before Pfizer’s announcements, the Ipsos institute published a new survey on the attitude of inhabitants of 15 countries, including France, towards a possible future vaccine against Covid-19. And it is in France that the population is the most reluctant to be vaccinated.

“If a Covid-19 vaccine were available,” only 54% of French people say they would be ready to be vaccinated – far behind India (87%), China (85%), South Korea (83%), Brazil (81%) or Australia and the United Kingdom (79%). This trend is even down by 5 points compared to a previous study, conducted in August by Ipsos.

Despite a tightening of health protocol in high schools to stop the second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, several teacher unions have kept the call to strike on Tuesday, particularly for colleges to benefit from the same measures.

Faced with the growing discontent of its staff, the Minister of Education announced last week new measures to limit the risks of contamination in high schools, in particular by authorizing more distance courses, provided that at least 50% face-to-face teaching is maintained. make for each student.

Despite this, a trade union (FSU, FNEC-FP-FO, CGT, Educ’action, SNALC, SUD and SNCL-FAEN) asked for the work to be stopped. In particular, he considered that “the current situation requires the massive and urgent presence of staff in schools, colleges, high schools” and asks the ministry to “immediately proceed with the recruitment of staff, in particular using the complementary lists of competitions”.

Soon a Covid-19 vaccine? In any case, Pfizer’s announcement on Monday already bodes well: the pharmaceutical group said, according to initial results, that its candidate has reduced the risk of getting the virus by 90%.

The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, found the announcement “encouraging”. But it’s still unclear whether the vaccine confers lasting immunity against the coronavirus.

“The results were presented two weeks after the second dose, so they are very short-term results,” says Frédéric Adnet, emergency manager at Avicenne hospital in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) for BFMTV. “We need to be sure that this vaccine is effective in the long term, that immunity lasts at least a year to be boosted perhaps every year as with the flu.”

In conditions of health emergency, most of Portugal experienced its first night of curfew on Monday, the latest measure to curb the proliferation of coronavirus cases; considered “catastrophic” by restaurateurs and traders in the center of Lisbon.

“It is impossible to keep the pandemic under control without disrupting people’s lives and the economy,” socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa admitted in an interview with TVI, when the daily toll for the first time passed the 60 death mark.

From 11pm local time, more than 7 million Portuguese residents in 121 municipalities considered “high risk” had to comply with a “public road ban” in effect until 5am. For at least two weeks, this curfew will begin at 1pm on Saturdays and Sundays, except for those who work or in cases of force majeure.

Hello everyone and welcome to this new live dedicated to the evolution of the coronavirus epidemic. The heaviest daily toll since the start of the second wave was announced on Monday: 551 people with Covid-19 have died in hospital in the past 24 hours.

The pressure on the health system continues to increase, even as the first encouraging signs have appeared of the virus’ circulation.

“The peak of the epidemic is ahead of us, the second wave is still ongoing,” warned Health Director General Jérôme Salomon. But he noted “a slower progression” of the epidemic “wherever anticipated braking measures have been applied, notably the curfew”.