The outbreak of the Delta mutation of the coronavirus is forcing countries to tighten health restrictions more and more, with local lockdown measures imposed in China, the military mobilization in Australia and the extension of the state of emergency in Japan.

At the same time, the wearing of masks becomes mandatory again in the areas most affected by the virus in the United States, as US President Joe Biden tries to intensify the slow vaccination campaign.

China is experiencing a new outbreak in several provinces, wherein quarantine measures have now been imposed. 

The effectiveness of Chinese vaccines raises concerns, after it was found that the majority of the new infected people are vaccinated.

Shanghai infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong said in a tweet that vaccines can "slow the rate of spread and reduce the death rate," but undoubtedly they cannot "eliminate the virus."

In Australia, the police of the city of Sydney, the largest city in the country and where five million people live, has reinforced 300 military personnel to ensure respect for the imposed restrictions, with a record injury rate recorded Thursday.

The closure measures, which entered the fifth week, were extended for an additional month, until August 28, while the ban on visiting beaches and parks is widely violated. Thousands of people demonstrated against these measures over the weekend.

A week after the start of the Olympics, Japan extended the state of health emergency in Tokyo until the end of August.

The Japanese prime minister said Friday that "the infection is spreading at an unprecedented speed," with 10,000 recorded daily at a record rate. Olympic organizers recorded 27 new cases linked to the event, despite strict measures.

The COVAX program, which is supposed to allow poor countries to receive vaccines for free, expects to receive 250 million doses of vaccines over the next six to eight weeks, according to the World Health Organization.

In Burma, the authorities warned of a "desperate" situation, calling on the UN Security Council to ensure that vaccines can be delivered, despite the political crisis the country has been experiencing since the coup that overthrew the civilian authority six months ago.

In the Philippines, the authorities announced Friday that 13 million citizens in the Manila region will be quarantined, starting next week, in a difficult decision aimed at "saving lives."

 Senegal, which has been relatively immune to the epidemic for a long time, is experiencing an unprecedented spread of infection, like the rest of the continent, and its overcrowded hospitals lack oxygen.

Tunisia, where the death rate is highest in North Africa, is struggling to cope with the virus, with the number of infections rising, while intensive care rooms suffer from a shortage of oxygen bottles.

The Corona virus has caused the death of 4,202,179 people in the world since the World Health Organization office in China reported the emergence of the disease at the end of December 2019, according to a census conducted by Agence France-Presse based on official sources on Friday at 10:00 GMT.

The World Health Organization, taking into account the excess mortality rate directly or indirectly related to Covid-19, considers that the outcome of the epidemic may be two or three times greater than the officially announced outcome