In this file photo taken on Jan 19, 2022, a nurse administers a pediatric dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to a girl at a LA Care Health Plan vaccination clinic at Los Angeles Mission College in the Sylmar neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. (ROBYN BECK / AFP)
MOSCOW / TEGUCIGALPA / LONDON / OTTAWA / TRIPOLI / ROME / NEW YORK / ADDIS ABABA – The ever-strong coronavirus wave fanned by the Omicron variant is leading to more deaths and infections in the United States with each passing day, plunging the COVID-19-battered country deeper into the quagmire of the pandemic.
Currently, more than 2,600 Americans die from COVID-19 each day nationwide, an alarming rate that has climbed by 30 percent in the past two weeks
With the deadly pathogen still wreaking havoc on the country, causing hospital burnouts, labor shortages as well as a handful of other social and economic disruptions, US media and health experts have predicted an even more grim scenario due to play out in February.
Currently, more than 2,600 Americans die from COVID-19 each day nationwide, an alarming rate that has climbed by 30 percent in the past two weeks. Across the country, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 900,000 lives, so far the highest death toll for a single nation in the world.
According to The New York Times, the Americans are experiencing "a disorienting moment in the pandemic."
Roughly one in five Americans had contracted Omicron by the mid-January peak, a number that could double by the time the surge ends in mid-February, Trevor Bedford, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, was quoted by The Wall Street Journal on Saturday as saying.
With the federal government launching a program to send free at-home COVID-19 tests to Americans who sign up through the website COVIDTests.gov, 1 billion tests have been ordered for distribution via the US Postal Service.
Most at-home COVID-19 test brands recommend storing the tests above 1.67 C. The liquid reagent inside the cartridge that comes with the at-home tests is susceptible to freezing, and if that happens, the accuracy of the results decreases, Cindy Prins, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Florida, was quoted by USA TODAY as saying.
Against all the pandemic odds, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to update its guidance on Feb 7 for some people with weakened immune systems to receive a booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine three months after completing the initial series of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine rather than at the current interval of five months.
On Friday, the agency updated its mask guidance, noting that wearing surgical masks could reduce the chances of testing positive by 66 percent and high-quality N95 and KN95 masks would provide much higher chances of avoiding infection.
However, mask-wearing has been a flash point for conflict in the country from the earliest days of the pandemic. Even now, there are still some people who refuse to wear masks out of belief that the pathogen is harmless.
View of the tables of a gala dinner offered by the government of Ethiopia for the participants of the 35th ordinary summit of the African Union, in the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Feb 5, 2022.
(EDUARDO SOTERAS / AFP)
Africa
Strict COVID-19 prevention methods enrolled at the ongoing African Union Summit, underway for the first time physically since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, proved a game changer in Africa's fight against the pandemic, Director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention John Nkengasong said Sunday.
The director said critics were labeling the summit, which was convened physically following a hiatus in 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as "a transmission event or a super spreader event."
"We stood firm and we said, we want to be sure to understand the kinetics of infection during the Summit. So when we pronounced ourselves and we said that the summit was COVID-19 free, we backed that with science," Nkengasong addressing the media on the sidelines of the summit.
As part of the strict COVID-19 preventive methods enrolled at the summit, an antigen test is mandatory for participants before accessing the AU headquarters compound in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
During the first three days of the event, comprising the meetings of AU Executive Council and AU Assembly, the Africa CDC managed to conduct over 5,400 COVID-19 tests using temporary testing centers installed inside the AU premises.
A demonstrator holds a sign during a protest against mandates related to COVID-19 vaccines and restrictions in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Feb 5, 2022. (GEOFF ROBINS / AFP)
Canada
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson on Sunday declared a state of emergency to help deal with an unprecedented 10-day occupation by protesting truckers that has shut down much of the core of the Canadian capital.
"(This) reflects the serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations and highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government," he said in a statement.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said on Sunday that the government would not back down on the issue
Watson, who complained earlier in the day that the demonstrators outnumbered police and controlled the situation, did not give details of what measures he might impose.
The "Freedom Convoy" began as a movement against a Canadian vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers but has turned into a rallying point against public health measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
Amid residents' fury at the lack of official response, Ottawa police relocated some protesters and put up fresh barricades on Sunday, saying they are "collecting financial, digital, vehicle registration … and other evidence that will be used in criminal prosecutions."
They also announced they would clamp down on people attempting to bring in canisters to refuel the hundreds of large trucks blocking most roads in the city center.
Protesters have paralyzed downtown Ottawa for the past nine days, with some participants waving Confederate or Nazi flags and some saying they want to dissolve Canada's government. Convoy organizers say they will not leave until the vaccine mandates are ended.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said on Sunday that the government would not back down on the issue.
"We put the question of vaccines and vaccine mandates on the ballot … in the (2021) election and we're simply carrying out the promise that we made with the support of the vast majority of Canadians," he said on CBC television.
Amid incessant horn blaring and occasional fireworks, a polished supply chain – including portable saunas, a community kitchen and bouncy castles for children – has sustained the protesters.
The well-organized blockade has relied partly on funding from sympathizers in the United States, police said. GoFundMe took down the Freedom Convoy's donation page, angering some US Republican lawmakers who pledged to investigate the move by the website.
Former US president Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have praised the truckers.
Police said they had charged four people with hate crimes and were investigating threats against public figures jointly with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Trudeau, who is isolating after testing positive for COVID-19 last week, has ruled out using the military to disband the protest. Due to security concerns, Trudeau and his family left their downtown home last weekend and his location has not been disclosed.
The prime minister has said the convoy represented a "small fringe minority" and the government would not be intimidated. About 90 percent of Canada's cross-border truckers and almost 79 percent of the population has had two COVID-19 vaccine shots.
Convoy organizers said they would refrain from using their horns on Sunday for four hours "as a gesture of goodwill".
A senior member of the Liberal government said the ease with which the convoy shut down the area around the parliament and the seeming impotence of police was a "national humiliation".
Senior opposition Conservatives who encouraged the protests, including taking selfies with truckers, did not reply to requests for comment. Last week, the party ditched its leader in part for not initially backing the blockade enthusiastically enough.
Honduran president-elect Xiomara Castro attends a mass on the 275th apparition of the Suyapa Virgin, Honduras´ patron saint, at the Suyapa Basilica in Tegucigalpa on Feb 3, 2022.
(ORLANDO SIERRA / AFP)
Honduras
Honduran President Xiomara Castro tweeted on Sunday that she has tested positive for COVID-19.
Despite receiving a negative test on Saturday, a test on Sunday returned positive, she said, adding that she will work from isolation with mild symptoms.
Castro's husband Manuel Zelaya, who served as Honduran president from 2006 to 2009, tested positive for the virus at the beginning of January.
As of the beginning of this week, Honduras had reported 397,548 cases and 10,548 deaths from COVID-19, according to the Ministry of Health.
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Italy
Italy reported 77,029 COVID-19 cases on Sunday, down from 93,157 the day before, the health ministry said, while the number of deaths decreased to 229 from 375.
Italy has registered 148,771 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth highest in the world. The country has reported 11.62 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 18,498 on Sunday, down from 18,615 a day earlier.
There were 105 new admissions to intensive care units, edging up from 104 on Saturday. The total number of intensive care patients rose to 1,431 from a previous 1,411.
Some 686,544 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 846,480, the health ministry said.
In this file photo taken on Aug 11, 2021, Libyans register to get vaccinated against the coronavirus at the Sports City complex in the capital Tripoli. (PHOTO / AFP)
Libya
The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Saturday called on competent authorities to impose preventive measures against COVID-19 in public areas amid surging cases nationwide.
The center also recommended launching nation-wide awareness campaigns against the virus, particularly in eastern and southern Libya.
It urged the authorities to provide more support to the isolation centers to increase their capacity, and called for launching mobile vaccination campaigns to vaccinate as many people as possible.
A total of 445,876 cases have been reported nationwide with 397,291 recoveries and 6,052 deaths, the center said. Up to 2,057,141 people have received one COVID-19 vaccine dose while 1,016,493 have received two, and 29,644 have got a booster shot.
Last month, the center announced that the country has officially entered into the fourth wave of the pandemic, as infections increased significantly.
On Dec 29, 2021, Libyan health authorities identified the country's first cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
A healthcare worker prepares a dose of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine to a patient at a vaccination center in the GUM, State Department store in Moscow on Jan 31, 2022. (NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP)
Russia
Russia confirmed 180,071 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the highest daily rise to date, taking the nationwide tally to 12,810,118, the official monitoring and response center said Sunday.
Meanwhile, Moscow, Russia's worst-hit region, reported 18,856 new cases, taking its total to 2,495,891.The nationwide death toll increased by 661 to 335,414, while the number of recoveries increased by 59,583 to 10,569,271.
Around 85 million Russian citizens had received at least one dose of vaccines and over 80 million had been fully vaccinated, according to data released on Friday.
The level of herd immunity in the country stood at 64.1 percent, the data showed.
South Africa
South Africa's health regulator said on Monday it had approved a COVID-19 vaccine from China's Sinopharm.
Drugs regulator SAHPRA said in a statement the Sinopharm approval was based on "acceptable safety, quality and efficacy data submitted by MC Pharma," referring to a local regulatory pharmaceutical company that has partnered with Sinopharm.
It said the vaccine was indicated for those aged 18 and over, subject to conditions including that it was administered in line with the national vaccination program and periodic safety updates were submitted.
UK
Britain reported 54,095 COVID-19 cases and 75 deaths in its daily official data on Sunday, with the seven-day figure for both falling compared with the week before.
In the last week, infection numbers were down 5 percent, while deaths fell by 7 percent on the seven days before.
