The governors of 27 Brazilian states rebelled this Friday against a measure by the Administration of President Jair Bolsonaro that hinders the vaccination of children against covid, while the United States will lift the restrictions it had imposed on eight travelers. African countries.
This news and five more make up the keys to today’s covid-19 in America:
REBELLIOUS GOVERNORS IN BRAZIL
The regional governments of the 27 states of Brazil decided to rise up against the decision of the Bolsonaro government to condition the vaccination of children under 12 years of age to a medical prescription and announced that they will immunize children without having to present a medical request.
The announcement was made by the National Council of Health Secretaries (Compass), after the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, announced the restriction that makes it difficult to vaccinate minors.
Since the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa, health regulator) authorized the use of the Pfizer vaccine in children between 5 and 11 years old, on December 16, Bolsonaro, leader of the Brazilian far-right denier, has been placing obstacles to start immunization.
Brazil, the second country with the most deaths and the third with the most COVID-19 infections in the world, accumulated 618,228 victims and 22.2 million cases until this Thursday since the start of the pandemic, on February 26 of last year.
USA WILL LIFT RESTRICTIONS ON AFRICAN COUNTRIES
The United States will lift on December 31 the restrictions it imposed on travelers from South Africa and seven other southern African countries after the appearance of the omicrón variant.
One of the spokesmen for the White House, Kevin Muñoz, said that US President Joe Biden made that decision following the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English).
The restrictions affected, in addition to South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, and Eswatini.
In the midst of this decision, the state of Florida broke its record of confirmed COVID-19 cases in one day by reporting 31,758 new infections this Friday amid the rebound in the pandemic due to the omicron variant.
The largest increase in cases registered in a day in Florida was 27,669 on August 26 and already on Thursday, it approached that figure with 26,811 new cases.
MORE THAN 2,000 FLIGHTS CANCELED BY OMICRON ADVANCE
More than 2,000 flights have been canceled around the world on Christmas Eve, marked by the advance of omicron, according to information from the American company Flight Aware, which specializes in providing real-time data on flights.
At 9:00 a.m. local time on the east coast of the United States, 2,045 flights had already been suspended worldwide, of which 457 were to the United States as a destination or departure point. In addition, 4,604 routes have experienced delays globally, of which 509 were heading to the US or departing from that country.
A Delta spokesperson explained that the cancellations are occurring due to weather difficulties in some areas as well as the omicron impact.
MEXICO: ONE YEAR OF VACCINATION WITHOUT FULL COVERAGE
Mexico turned one year on Friday since it administered the first covid vaccine without being able to reach 100% coverage in full doses and amid criticism from the scientific community for lack of planning and the political use of the vaccination process.
The country has managed to inoculate 56% of its population with both doses, in addition to the fact that vaccination for children under 15 years of age has not yet been approved.
“Having started earlier has not given us advantages. We have a lot of experience in vaccination campaigns, but the mistake has been made of delegating responsibility to other people, such as the Ministry of Welfare (in charge of programs to address poverty),” he assured Efe Malaquías López, academic of the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
CUBAN PRESIDENT ASKS NOT TO LOWER THE GUARD
The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, called not to lower his guard against the coronavirus despite the relatively good current figures in the country.
Díaz-Canel indicated that it is necessary to continue with the massive vaccination campaign in the country, where more than 85% of the population is fully immunized after having received the complete three-dose schedule of one of the three Cuban-made vaccines: Abdala, Soberana 02, and Soberana Plus.
CHINA DELIVERY SECOND VACCINE DONATION TO NICARAGUA
The Government of China gave Nicaragua the second donation of vaccines against covid-19 since the Central American country reestablished its relations with the Asian giant, after breaking them with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rebel island.
The batch shipped by China consisted of 800,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines and an undisclosed number of syringes, according to the Nicaraguan government.
In total, China has donated one million doses of vaccines to Nicaragua since the reestablishment of relations between the two countries, on the 10th.