Worldwide, coronavirus deaths rose for the fifth consecutive week, with the 68,000 fatalities reported last week, representing a 7 percent jump from the previous week. Although cases are declining in the United States, WHO officials said many countries have not hit the peak of omicron. They called for people to continue masking and maintaining distance to help drive down transmission.
“You will not need to wear a mask forever,” WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said. “We will not need to physically distance forever. But for now, it’s really important that we be careful.”
Here’s what to know
Covid deaths highest in a year as omicron targets the unvaccinated and older people
Return to menuThough considered milder than other coronavirus variants, omicron has infected so many people that it has driven the number of daily deaths beyond where it was last spring, before vaccines were widely available, according to Washington Post data.
The omicron variant has been particularly lethal to people over 75, the unvaccinated and the medically vulnerable, according to doctors and public health officials. The soaring death toll also illustrates why experts pleaded with the public to beware the highly contagious variant even though it is less virulent than others.
“That feels quite jarring to people who may have assumed omicron is generally on a per-case level less severe and given the fact we have vaccinated at least some portion of the country,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Even if on a per-case basis fewer people develop severe illness and die, when you apply a small percentage to a very large number, you get a substantial number.”
Four states plan to lift school mask mandates as CDC continues its support for masking
Return to menuOfficials from four states — Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon — on Monday announced plans to drop mask mandates for schools in the coming weeks, leaving masking decisions to individual districts.
Connecticut’s governor said he will recommend removing his state’s mandate for masks in schools at the end of this month. New Jersey will end its mandate March 7. Oregon’s masking requirement for all indoor public places, including classrooms, will be removed no later than March 31, when Delaware’s school mask mandate is also set to expire.
In response to news of states’ easing of restrictions, White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated the Biden administration’s support for the CDC guidance for masks to be worn in schools but said the policy will be “continually” assessed based on “science and data.”
Mask mandates remain controversial, and lawsuits debating their legality are still playing out in some states. The Illinois attorney general filed an appeal Monday to a court-issued temporary restraining order that prevents the state’s school districts from requiring indoor masking. On Friday, a judge in Virginia barred the enforcement of the governor’s mask-optional order for schools, after local school boards opposed the policy.
Leaving masking decisions to individual school districts may not be less contentious. School districts and educators sometimes disagree with how much protection should be in place for in-person teaching. For example, Chicago had classes canceled for a handful of days last month until the school system, the third largest in the country, reached a deal with the teachers union to distribute KN95 masks to educators and implement unpaid sick leave, among other terms.
Global deaths increase for fifth week in a row, WHO says
Return to menuGlobal coronavirus deaths increased for the fifth week in a row, World Health Organization officials said Tuesday, calling the trend tragic at a time of effective vaccinations.
The 68,000 fatalities recorded last week marked a 7 percent jump from the previous week, WHO incident manager Abdi Mahamud said during an online Q&A session. That number is probably an undercount, he and other officials said, because adequate reporting systems are not in place around the world.
“The fact that we are seeing an increase in deaths when we have safe and effective vaccines, when more than 10 billion doses of vaccines have been administered to date, when we have diagnostics that work, when we can get patients into the clinical care pathway and save people’s lives, this is beyond tragic,” WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said.
Since the highly contagious omicron variant was first detected, at least 500,000 deaths have been recorded around the world, Mahamud said. Of those, about 100,000 were in the United States, he added, saying it was “tragic beyond tragic” to witness in a nation with free doses of vaccines. He noted there are millions of people in the United States who remain resistant to being vaccinated.
Although U.S. cases have been declining, many countries have not yet hit the peak of the omicron surge, Van Kerkhove said. WHO officials are monitoring four sublineages of omicron, including BA.2, which is more transmissible than even BA.1. There has been no evidence it is more severe, but Van Kerkhove noted that it is in “early days” and that “the studies are really just underway.”
She described variants as the “wild card” in the pandemic and said the virus has “a lot of room to move.” While omicron is the latest variant of concern, she said, it will not be the last one.
“The next one that will come, hopefully, it will take some time to get there, but with the level of intensity of spread, the possibility that we will have other variants is really high,” Van Kerkhove said.
Pandemic stress could be causing your eye problems. Here’s what to know.
Return to menuThe physical manifestations of pandemic stress are well-documented: People have been experiencing increased blood pressure, sleep problems and trouble focusing. But there are other, potentially overlooked, indicators of stress, according to experts — and eye health is a prime example.
“Stress, anxiety, depression and mental health changes can affect our sensory system, especially our vision,” said Raj Maturi, an ophthalmologist and clinical spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. “Vision is a complex psychophysical process where we build a model of the world around us — and this is affected by our mental state.”
Eye twitching, for example, is a common stress response. Usually, the twitches, which are triggered when the muscles around the eye spasm, go away in a day or two. But other common issues, including dry eye disease, can have lasting effects if they aren’t addressed.
He’s cute. But is he swab-worthy? How rapid testing became a dating ritual.
Return to menuAsking someone to stick something up their nose isn’t usually polite first-, second- or even third-date behavior.
But when Jamie Gloyne’s date called an hour before they planned to meet up for an art exhibit in downtown San Francisco, saying she had a headache, he swooped in with a nose swab. Gloyne had several coronavirus rapid tests on-hand, so he took one to his date’s apartment. As soon as his date’s drops hit the test strip, two pink lines appeared. She was positive.
Gloyne bid his date adieu and went to the art exhibit alone. It was his 41st birthday, and though he was celebrating solo, he was relieved to be vaccinated, boosted and to have had an antigen test to spare.
Many in the dating scene aren’t as cautious or as prepared. And who can blame them? For two years, the coronavirus pandemic has been making the awkward and excruciating dating dance even more complicated. At every stage, there are new precautions to take and questions to ask: Is my date social distancing? Do they arrive with their own mask, or do I need to give them one? Are they vaccinated? Boosted? When was their last coronavirus test? How do I trust that they’re telling the truth? This is all in addition to the pre-pandemic conundrums: Do I like them? Do they like me back?
The inside story of a family’s battle to save their restaurant during the pandemic
Return to menuOne morning in early April 2020, Alan Yu woke up congested after a restless night’s sleep. His wife, Janet, prepared him a cup of hap zai cha, a Chinese medicinal tea she’d made for years to help with the family’s flus and colds. Normally, in the early afternoon, Alan would drive from the family’s home in Olney, Md., to their restaurant, Hollywood East Cafe, in Silver Spring. But once Janet noticed her husband’s labored breathing, she told him to stay home. She would cover for both of them.
Janet wasn’t too worried as she pulled into the covered garage that Wednesday morning at the Westfield Wheaton mall, where she was protected from the elements on her short walk to Hollywood East on the first floor. She figured Alan had a cold. Plus, she had a business to run, a Cantonese/Hong Kong restaurant that was a fixture not just of the Maryland suburbs, but of the wider D.C. region, thanks largely to its dim sum service. Every weekend, pre-pandemic, diners would crowd their tables with orders of siu mai and har gow dumplings, steamed roast pork buns, sticky rice with Chinese sausage, and delicate rice-noodle crepes that conceal tiny curls of shrimp. The service attracted large multicultural crowds that would happily wait for a table in a 140-seat dining room whose walls were painted a vibrant shade of red, a color associated with joy and luck in China, but one also thought to make diners hungry.
Texas man pleads guilty to threats sent to Maryland doctor over coronavirus vaccine
Return to menuA Texas man pleaded guilty to sending a threatening message to a Maryland medical doctor who publicly promoted the coronavirus vaccine, prosecutors announced Monday.
Scott Eli Harris, 51, of Aubrey, Tex., could spend up to five years in federal prison for threats transmitted by interstate communication, prosecutors said.
“Public health officials and doctors deserve our respect for their tireless efforts during the ongoing pandemic, and individuals who seek to use threats of violence to intimidate and silence them will be held accountable,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release.
The CDC’s do-not-travel list now encompasses more than half the world’s destinations
Return to menuThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has moved seven more countries to its highest-risk category for travel — a list that has grown to include 134 destinations, with many added since the World Health Organization declared omicron a “variant of concern” on Nov. 26.
The CDC’s four levels — which start at “low” risk and escalate to “moderate,” “high” and “very high” — are designed to help Americans navigate travel in the pandemic as case levels continue to fluctuate. The public health agency recommends that all travelers should be fully vaccinated, regardless of their destination’s designation. For countries deemed “very high” risk, the CDC guidance is to “avoid travel.”
Australian lawmakers fear escalation of ‘Freedom Convoy’-inspired anti-vaccination protests
Return to menuSYDNEY — Australian lawmakers expressed fears Tuesday over the escalation of anti-vaccination protests in the capital inspired by the trucker-led demonstrations in Canada.
The protests in Canberra have been energized by the truck convoy causing havoc in Ottawa but feature few trucks. They have lasted for eight days and are set to continue until at least the weekend amid fears that the situation, mostly peaceful so far, could deteriorate.
As protesters waved signs saying “Genocide” and “Freedom” on the lawn in front of Parliament, center-left lawmaker Kristina Keneally warned that the motley crowd contained “individuals that our national security agencies are worried about.”
“Some of these protesters actually want to undermine and overturn democracy,” Keneally, an American-born senator of the Australian Labor Party, told reporters, citing the arrest of one protest organizer last week after police allegedly found a gun in his car.
Protest organizers and politicians supporting the demonstrations rejected her claim, however. And a few hours later, a far-right lawmaker welcomed eight demonstrators into the capitol so they could deliver a list of demands.
Canada cautions on ‘foreign interference’ as U.S. Republicans back vaccine mandate protesters
Return to menuSenior Canadian officials hit back Monday at high-profile U.S. Republicans who have voiced support for the self-described “Freedom Convoy,” as the group continued to block traffic in downtown Ottawa in protest of vaccine rules for cross-border truckers.
The Canadian convoy has attracted the attention of U.S. politicians debating their own country’s coronavirus protocols, and drawn support from Republican figures including former president Donald Trump.
Responding to some of those critics Monday, Canada’s public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, said: “We’re Canadian. We have our own set of laws. We will follow them.”
Here’s what you need to know about the ‘Freedom Convoy’ in Canada
Return to menuProtesters — some of them in big-rig trucks — have been jamming streets in the downtown core of the Canadian capital, Ottawa, in recent weeks to challenge covid-related restrictions.
The demonstrators have dubbed their movement the “Freedom Convoy” and, for the second weekend in a row, have blared horns, shot off fireworks, driven on sidewalks and engaged in what Ottawa police have described as “extremely disruptive and unlawful behavior.”
The Ottawa Police Service said it is working to end the disruption and that officers have issued hundreds of tickets, made several arrests, and seized fuel and vehicles over the weekend.
The police force also opened up criminal investigations into what it said was “threatening” and “illegal behavior.” The mayor of Ottawa declared a state of emergency on Sunday.
American University unknowingly distributed counterfeit KN95 masks, officials confirm
Return to menuAmerican University began distributing new KN95 masks on campus Monday after learning an initial batch of face coverings handed out by the school recently were counterfeit, officials said.
The university began its new semester virtually to help mitigate the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, and it resumed in-person classes on Jan. 31. It also set a new masking policy, requiring people to wear N95, KN95 or KF94 masks while indoors, saying those versions “provide the best protection.” The campus set up sites where people could pick up a mask if they have a university ID.
On Friday, the Eagle, AU’s student newspaper, reported that the university had unknowingly distributed counterfeit masks during the first week of classes. The staff began investigating after people contacted the newsroom’s social media accounts about “discrepancies in the legitimacy of the masks,” said Clare Mulroy, the Eagle’s editor in chief.
Key coronavirus updates from around the world
Return to menuHere’s what to know about the top coronavirus stories around the globe from news service reports.
- In New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, some 2,000 vehicles blocked the area surrounding Parliament to protest vaccine mandates, in an imitation of the “Freedom Convoy” truckers in Ottawa.
- An Olympic official in China said Tuesday that more spectators will be allowed to attend the Winter Games in person “because the current covid-19 situation within the ‘closed loop’ is under control.”
- In Germany, the premier of the state of Bavaria said a vaccine mandate for health-care workers, due to take effect in mid-March, will not be enforced for now. He argued that mandating vaccines only for people in that sector is not helpful in dealing with the current omicron-fueled case surge.
- Authorities in Hong Kong imposed restrictions Tuesday on indoor and outdoor gatherings and expanded the city’s vaccine mandate to new venues, in a bid to control a spike in coronavirus cases.
- The government of Sweden announced it would allow in all travelers from its Nordic neighbors and European Union and European Economic Area nations starting Wednesday, as it prepares to phase out coronavirus restrictions altogether.
Authorities stand by Hong Kong’s ‘zero-covid’ policy as it buckles under omicron’s onslaught
Return to menuHONG KONG — Ann Chan spent the last week of January locked down with her husband and two sons in their tiny 300-square-foot (28-square-meter) apartment.
Her public housing complex, Kwai Chung, had turned into a dystopian tableau. Locked down by the government over fears of a covid outbreak, residents could only leave for daily tests administered by hazmat-suited health workers in blue pop-up tents. With all supplies cut off, meals — oily and barely edible — were distributed by authorities. Garbage piled up “like a mountain,” with some of the bags leaking brown liquid all over the floor, said Chan, 37.
The seven-day lockdown of Kwai Chung — along with the culling of thousands of hamsters, the suspension of flights from major cities and other social distancing measures — was meant to buy Hong Kong time against the pandemic’s most transmissible variants and get the city back to zero infections.
It did not.
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