The latest statistics on the incidence of coronavirus in Belgium confirm scientific models about the onset of a new “wave” of COVID-19 by mid-October, the Sciensano Public Health Institute said.
Updated data from Sciensano released on Tuesday indicates a significant increase in coronavirus infections and COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Last week, daily infections reached an average of 2823 cases, which means an increase of 26% compared to the previous one. During the same period, an average of 94 patients were hospitalized daily. This figure rose by 28% over the week.
The vast majority of cases (92.3%) are infected with a subvariant of the Omicron BA.5 strain. The number of new cases of the disease reached 306 per 100 thousand inhabitants in 14 days.
The average daily number of deaths from coronavirus has increased to almost four, a 42% increase from the previous week. Since the beginning of the pandemic in Belgium, 32,690 people have died from COVID-19.
In the meantime, in France, in connection with the increase in infections with the coronavirus, the issue of resuming the mandatory wearing of protective masks is being considered, Brigitte Autrans, chairman of the French Committee for the Monitoring of Sanitary Risks (Covars), said Tuesday on the RMC radio station.
“All indicators are growing: positive tests, the number of hospitalizations, visits to the emergency rooms of hospitals, and even an increase in hospitalizations in intensive care units is planned. That is, yes, this is the eighth” wave, “Professor Otran stated.
“We really need to wear masks,” she said.
Azerbaijani gas supplies to Europe will increase by 40% to 11.5 billion cubic meters in 2022, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
“In 2022, our export will reach 22 billion cubic meters, of which 11.5 billion cubic meters will be supplied to consumers in Europe. In 2021, 8.2 billion cubic meters was supplied to Europe. This means a 40% increase in the supplies in 2022,” Aliyev said at the ceremony for putting into commercial operation the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) in Sofia on Saturday.
In accordance with the agreements with the European Union, Azerbaijan plans to at least double its gas export to Europe by 2027.
For that purpose, Baku has begun consultations with its partners on the issue of expansion of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) to 32 billion cubic meters of gas a year and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to 20 billion cubic meters of gas a year, Aliyev said.
“We have already begun consultations with our partners on the expansion of the TANAP from 16 billion cubic meters to 32 billion cubic meters and the TAP from 10 billion cubic meters to 20 billion cubic meters. Because without it it will be difficult to ensure additional supplies,” the president said.
Aliyev said Azerbaijan has the capabilities to increase the gas export volumes by starting extraction at some other gas deposits.
The stock market of Western Europe is actively rising on Friday, recovering from falling to the lowest level in more than two years, but still ends the next quarter with a decline.
The composite index of the largest companies in the Stoxx Europe 600 region jumped by 1.19% by 11:26 a.m. to 387.42 points. Growth leaders among industry sub-indexes are retailers, oil and gas companies and banks.
The index is down about 5% since the beginning of the third quarter and could end in the red for the third quarter in a row.
The British stock index FTSE 100 during trading on Friday rose by 0.91%, the German DAX – by 1.22%, the French CAC 40 – by 1.21%. The Italian FTSE MIB and the Spanish IBEX 35 added 1.5% and 1.2% respectively.
Investors evaluate a large array of statistical data from various European countries.
Thus, the UK economy in the second quarter of 2022 grew by 0.2% compared to the previous three months, according to the final data from the National Statistics Office (ONS). A 0.1% decline in GDP was previously reported, and analysts generally did not expect a revision of the data.
Consumer prices in France, harmonized with the standards of the European Union, in September increased by 6.2% in annual terms after rising by 6.6% in August, although experts expected inflation to accelerate to 6.7%.
Meanwhile, consumer spending in France was unchanged in August from the previous month. The average forecast of experts assumed a decline of 0.1%, according to Trading Economics.
In addition, on Friday it became known that the number of unemployed in Germany in September increased by 14 thousand, increasing for the fourth month in a row, but unemployment was expected to remain at 5.5%.
In Italy, unemployment in August unexpectedly fell to 7.8% from 7.9% in July, although analysts did not expect a change in the rate.
Aston Martin stock quotes are up 3.9% during trading on Friday on news that China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. bought a 7.6% stake in the British sports car manufacturer.
Sportswear makers Puma and Adidas are down 5.4% and 3.9%, respectively, after U.S. rival Nike Inc. the day before, he reported on the reduction of quarterly profit and noted the impact of negative factors on profitability.
Capitalization of Italian construction company Webuild rose 2.2% on a strong full-year outlook.
The final of Europe’s largest IT competition, DEV Challenge XIX, will be held online and offline in Ukraine and Poland on October 28 and 29, the organizers told Interfax-Ukraine.
The organizers cooperate with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. This year, competition tasks from UNICEF, the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Defense and the Army of Drones will be presented.
“Modern warfare is won by modern technologies, so the effective implementation of the best solutions is a strategically important step for victory. High-quality and creative digital solutions for the Ukrainian army are no less important than traditional methods of warfare,” the press service of the director for digitalization of the DC “Ukroboronprom” quotes Timur Korytny.
The DEV Challenge XIX championship started in early September 2022 and will last for two months. Competitions are held in three stages: qualification, online round, final. The judges of the Championship are top professionals of the international IT community from Europe, the USA and Australia.
Already registered more than 1800 participants. The DEV Challenge takes place online, with the exception of the hybrid final. The final was traditionally held in Kyiv, both offline and online. This year it was decided to hold it simultaneously in two countries, Ukraine and Poland. In particular, they already name one of the offline locations of the DEV Challenge XIX final, the Polish city of Lodz, the Ukrainian city is still being chosen.
According to the organizer of the championship Evgenia Bespalova, every year the competition becomes an increasingly powerful tool for inventing technological solutions for the critical tasks of society.
“DEV Challenge participants receive tasks from our partners. Since 2019, we have been actively cooperating with ministries, involving top IT specialists in solving urgent issues of the state. Thanks to the championship, the country is accelerating digitalization processes in various areas. This year we are working on the development of technologies for recovery Ukraine, assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Bespalova said.
Among the tasks set are solutions for the protection of children and other humanitarian issues. Participants receive real cases of DEV Challenge partners in the commercial sector, as well as non-profit organizations.
Bespalova gave several examples of online round tasks. In the Frontend and UI Design nomination, a task from the Come Back Alive Foundation is presented: participants will develop an interactive map of crimes during the war based on the collected database.
Participants in the Manual QA nomination will test a mobile application for the development of preschoolers – “Numo” from UNICEF.
In order to increase the number of donations for children and hospitals, the Svichado Charitable Foundation needs to update the site, which will be done by participants in the Product Design nomination.
“As for the final, we are actively continuing to collect tasks from our stakeholders – UNICEF, Ukroboronprom, the Army of Drones and the Ministry of Digital Development,” Bespalova said.
DEV Challenge has been taking place in Ukraine since 2012, founded by Ukrainians Igor and Evgeniya Bespalov. For 10 years, 18 Championships have been held, in which more than 22,000 specialists from different countries took part.
The next four ships with 115 thousand tons of agricultural products left the ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdenny on Wednesday for Africa, Asia and Europe, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine reports.
“Four ships left the berths, including Magnum Fortune, which transports 51 thousand tons of Ukrainian wheat for Bangladesh, and Almeray with 32.4 thousand tons of corn for Libya,” the agency noted on Facebook.
In total, after the release of the first vessel with Ukrainian food, 5.4 million tons of agricultural products were exported, and the total number of vessels leaving Ukrainian ports for the countries of Asia, Europe and Africa reached 235.
The agency indicated that the day before, the most capacious vessel of the time of the initiative, the Capesize Maran Excellence, with 115,000 tons of grain, left the port of Pivdenny.
As reported, in Istanbul on July 22, with the participation of the UN, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia, two documents were signed on the creation of a corridor for the export of grain from three Ukrainian ports – Chornomorsk, Odessa and Pivdenny.
Exports of organic products from Ukraine to the countries of the European Union and Switzerland in January-June 2022 increased by 19.4% compared to the first half of 2021 – up to 160,020 tonnes from 128,840 tonnes, this happened despite problems with logistics and the blockade of Ukrainian seaports due to full-scale Russian aggression.
According to the website of the information portal OrganicInfo, by the end of 2022, Ukraine is expected to reduce land under organic products due to the temporary occupation of its southern regions. At the same time, in the Ukrainian territories liberated from Russian occupation in early April, the work of organic producers has been almost completely resumed this season.
It is specified that in general, in 2021, Ukraine exported about 260,000 tonnes of organic products for a total amount of about $220 million to more than 30 countries of the world, of which 82% of the revenue came from the EU countries.
“In 2021, Ukraine slightly reduced the volume of supplies of organic products to the EU, but still remains in the TOP 5 largest suppliers of organic products in the EU. In 2021 the total share of Ukrainian imports amounted to 6.6% (of all imports to the EU),” OrganicInfo said.
OrganicInfo is an information portal created by the international charitable environmental organization Green Dossier, which aims to promote organic production, organic food and sustainable lifestyles.
