MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says that amid falling lethality rates for COVID-19, Spain wants European officials to consider whether to move away from the detailed tracking that the pandemic has required until now to a flu-like monitoring system.
The change would mean treating COVID-19 as an “endemic illness” rather than a pandemic, Sánchez said Monday, adding that deaths as a proportion of recorded cases have fallen dramatically since the initial onset of the pandemic.
“I believe that we have the conditions for, with precaution, slowly, opening the debate at the technical level and at the level of health professionals, but also at the European level, to start evaluating the evolution of this disease with different parameters than we have until now,” Sánchez told Cadena SER radio.
The prime minister confirmed a report from the country’s leading newspaper, El País, that under a new monitoring system already being drafted by Spanish health authorities every new infection would not need to be recorded and that people with symptoms would not necessarily be tested but they will continue to receive treatment.
Citing epidemiology officials, El País said that the plan would be for a network of carefully chosen health facilities and professionals to report, in a survey-like system similar to the one used across Europe for tracking influenza, the evolution of COVID-19 outbreaks — what technically is called “sentinel surveillance” rather than the current method of “universal surveillance.”
Health Minister Carolina Darias has discussed the proposal with some of her counterparts in the European Union, Sánchez said without elaborating.
The prime minister also announced that Spain is purchasing this month 344,000 pills of a COVID-19 antiviral drug developed by the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, on Monday ordered cafes, bars and restaurants to close no later than 11 p.m., urged people to work from home when possible and said distance learning was an option in higher education to try to combat rising levels of COVID-19 infection.
Despite millions of people getting the vaccine, “we believe that the situation requires further measures over a period of time, in order to curb the spread of infection and reduce the burden on health care and care,” Andersson said.
Sweden which has previously stood out among European nations for its comparatively hands-off response to the pandemic, is in the midst of “a fourth wave with a high spread of infection and high disease rates,” Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren said.
Andersson said that the situation has “without a doubt worsened.”
“Restrictions are not something we introduce lightly and we are aware that the past two years have been a trying for all of us in Sweden,” Andersson said.
Head of the Swedish Public Health Agency Karin Tegmark Wise added: "We are in an extreme situation.”
As of Jan. 14, cafes, bars and eateries must close at 11 p.m., a limit of eight people per group in these places is being introduced, anyone who can work from home should do so, and distance learning can be introduced in higher education.
For people without a vaccination certificate, the government introduced a ceiling of 50 people for public gatherings and public events.
Authorities reiterated their calls to people to be vaccinated, with Andersson saying vaccination “is the most powerful (tool) we have against the spread of COVID-19."
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KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda's schools reopened to students on Monday, ending the world's longest school disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The reopening caused traffic congestion in some areas of the capital, Kampala, and students can be seen carrying their mattresses in the streets, a back-to-boarding school phenomenon not witnessed here for nearly two years.
Uganda’s schools have been fully or partially shut for more than 83 weeks, the world's longest disruption, according to figures from the U.N. cultural agency. The shutdown affected more than 10 million learners.
The East African country of 44 million people first shut down its schools in March 2020, shortly after the first coronavirus case was confirmed on the African continent. Some classes were reopened to students in February 2021, but a total lockdown was imposed again in June as the country faced its first major surge.
For many parents, the reopening was long overdue.
“Inevitably, we have to open up schools,” said Felix Okot, the father of a 6-year-old kindergartner. “The future of our kids, the future of our nation, is at stake.”
The country's schools cannot “wait forever” for the pandemic's end, he warned.
The protracted school lockdown proved controversial in a country where measures aimed at stemming the spread of the virus were ignored by many. Vaccine skepticism, even among health workers, remains a problem, with growing reports of fake COVID-19 vaccination cards sold in downtown Kampala.
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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines on Monday reported a record high number of new COVID-19 cases for the third day, logging 33,169 infections.
The positivity rate, or percentage of tested people whose results came out positive, also soared to 46%, another record high since the pandemic started two years ago.
Monday’s tally brings the Philippines’ total infection count nearer to the 3 million mark at 2,998,530. The death toll stood at 52,293 with 145 new deaths recorded.
Officials said they are assuming that local transmission of the highly contagious omicron variant is driving the current spike in cases.
Some experts have called for increased restrictions as cases surge and hospital operations are being hobbled by the number of infected health workers. But officials said on Monday that there is still no need to raise the alert to the fourth level of the five-step alert system.
The capital region Metro Manila and several provinces and cities are under under Alert Level 3 until January 15. Prohibited activities include in-person classes, live voice and wind instrument events, contact sport, and fairs. Operations of casinos and gatherings in residences of people who do not belong to the same household are also not allowed. Restaurants, gyms, barbershops, and other establishments can operate only at 30% capacity indoors for fully vaccinated customers and 50% outdoors.
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BEIJING (AP) — The numbers are small, but the major port of Tianjin may be facing China's first local outbreak of omicron of any size, less than a month before the Winter Olympics open in nearby Beijing.
State broadcaster CCTV said the government has divided Tianjin and its 14 million residents into three levels of restrictions, starting with lockdown areas where people are not allowed to leave their homes at all. In control areas, each household is allowed to have one family member leave to buy groceries every other day, while in prevention areas, people must remain inside their immediate neighborhoods.
Buses and trains from Tianjin to Beijing have been suspended and people are being told not to leave the city unless they have pressing business.
The city began mass testing of all its residents on Sunday after a cluster of 20 children and adults tested positive for COVID-19, including at least two with the omicron variant. Another 20 people tested positive on Sunday, bringing the total to 40. Officials said earlier that the virus has been circulating so the number of cases could rise.
China has stepped up its strict zero tolerance strategy in the runup to the Olympics, which open Feb. 4. The Chinese capital is 115 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Tianjin and many people regularly travel back and forth by car or on a high-speed rail link that takes less than one hour.
Elsewhere, millions of people are being confined to their homes in Xi’an and Yuzhou, two cities that are farther away but have larger outbreaks traced to the delta variant. Residents of Xi'an have been under lockdown for more than two weeks, but the number of new cases in the city of 13 million fell to just 15 on Monday in a sign that restrictions could soon be lifted. Yuzhou is a city of about 1.1 million people in neighboring Henan province.
Another 60 cases were reported Monday in Henan, two of them of the omicron variant, found in the city of Anyang and apparently brought from Tianjin by a college student on Dec. 28, state media outlet The Paper reported. The provincial capital of Zhengzhou has been conducting mass testing and closed its schools. Another 24 cases were reported in the city on Monday.
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CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago school leaders canceled class a fourth day in the nation’s third-largest district as negotiations with the teachers’ union over remote learning and other COVID-19 safety protocols failed to produce an agreement over the weekend.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said in a joint statement Sunday evening that there wasn't “sufficient progress" in talks to resume in-person classes Monday, extending disruptions into a second school week. But they vowed negotiations would continue “through the night.”
Disputed issues included testing and metrics to close schools. The Chicago Teachers Union wants the option to revert to districtwide remote instruction, and most members have refused to teach in-person until there's an agreement, or the latest COVID-19 spike subsides. But Chicago leaders reject districtwide remote learning, saying it's detrimental to students and schools are safe. Instead, Chicago opted to cancel classes as a whole two days after students returned from winter break.
Chicago faces the same pandemic issues as other districts nationwide, with more reverting to remote learning as infections soar and staff members are sidelined. But the situation in union-friendly Chicago has been amplified in a labor dispute that's familiar to families in the mostly low-income Black and Latino district who have seen disruptions during a similar safety protocol fight last year, a 2019 strike and a one-day work stoppage in 2016.
The announcement for the roughly 350,000-student district came as the principals of some schools had already notified families their schools would be closed for instruction Monday because of staffing shortages.
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PRAGUE (AP) - Thousands of people marched through the Czech Republic's capital on Sunday to protest against compulsory COVID-19 vaccination for certain groups and professions.
The protesters gathered at Wenceslas Square in central Prague to question the effectiveness of the current vaccines and reject the vaccination of children before marching through the capital, chanting “Freedom, freedom.”
Prague's protest followed similar but smaller demonstrations in several Czech cities on Saturday.
The previous government released an order in early December, making vaccination mandatory for the 60 and over age group, as well as medical personnel, police officers, firefighters and medical students.
The order is due to take effect in March, but it still might end up being overturned.
Prime Minister Andrej Babis’ administration was replaced later in December by a new government formed by five parties that won October’s parliamentary election, led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
The new administration opposed a vaccination mandate for older people and was ready to cancel it, but didn’t rule out it might still be compulsory for some, depending on the development of the pandemic. The government should announce its decision about it by the middle of February.
The new fast spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus was expected by health authorities to become dominant in the country next week.
In the nation of 10.7 million, 6.7 million are considered fully vaccinated, while over 2.8 million have received a booster shot.