LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal's Socialist Party leader António Costa announced Tuesday he has tested positive for COVID-19, two days after his landslide election victory and just as he starts forming his new government.
Costa said in a statement he will self-isolate for seven days, in accordance with the country's pandemic rules.
Costa, who has been Portugal's prime minister since 2015 and is set to serve another four years, was due to meet with President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Wednesday as a first step toward being sworn in. It wasn't immediately clear if another Socialist Party official would replace him.
The Socialists took at least 117 seats in Portugal's 230-seat parliament, with four seats still to be allocated, in what was a thumping victory.
Costa, along with scores of Socialist officials and supporters, celebrated the rout in a windowless basement room in a Lisbon hotel, with hugging and yelling.
Media representatives were also present for Costa's victory speech in the packed and low-ceilinged room, which drew criticism as a poor choice of venue for celebrations.
People were required to show digital vaccine certificates and wear masks at the event, but checks were not always carried out and some people pulled their masks down to their chin.
The election took place amid a surge in COVID-19 cases blamed on the omicron variant. Around 1 million people were in home confinement on election day but they were allowed to go out to vote.
___
GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization says overuse of gloves, “moon suits” and the use of billions of masks and vaccination syringes to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus have spurred a huge glut of health care waste worldwide.
The U.N. health agency reported Tuesday that tens of thousands of tons of extra medical waste has strained waste management systems and is threatening both health and the environment, pointing to a “dire need” to improve those systems and get a response from both governments and people.
“Part of the message for the public is to become more of a conscious consumer,” said Dr. Margaret Montgomery, technical officer of WHO’s water, sanitation, hygiene and health unit. “In terms of the volume, it’s enormous.”
“We find that people are wearing excessive PPE,” Montgomery said, referring to personal protection equipment.
The agency says most of the roughly 87,000 tons of such equipment – including what she called “moon suits" and gloves -- obtained from March 2020 to November 2021 to battle COVID-19 has ended up as waste. More than 8 billion doses of vaccine administered globally have produced 143 tons of extra waste in terms of syringes, needles and safety boxes.
"It is absolutely vital to provide health workers with the right (protective gear)," Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief, said in a statement. “But it is also vital to ensure that it can be used safely without impacting on the surrounding environment.”
In the statement, Dr. Anne Woolridge of the International Solid Waste Association said “safe and rational use" of personal protective equipment would reduce environmental harm, save money, reduce possible supply shortages and help prevent infection “by changing behaviors.”
WHO issued recommendations like use of “eco-friendly” packaging and shipping as well as reusable equipment and recyclable or biodegradable materials.
___
PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic has recorded a significant decline in people dying of COVID-19 despite facing a record number of new cases in January.
Over 560,000 new coronavirus were registered in January, by far the most in one month since the beginning of the pandemic amid a record surge of infections driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.
It was over 150,000 more than the previous record set in November and 250,000 more than in December. Yet, 978 people died of COVID-19 in January, compared to almost 3,000 in December and 2,500 in November when the previous delta variant was dominant in the European Union country.
The Czech Republic has registered 37,243 virus-related deaths in the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the lower house of Parliament was debating Tuesday a plan to amend the pandemic law that gives the coalition government extra powers to impose coronavirus restrictions and extend its reach beyond February.
Police arrested four demonstrators who attacked them as they rallied to protest the plan in front of the lower house in Prague.
Amid the record surge, the day-to-day increase of infections reached a record of almost 55,000 last Wednesday. It was almost 30,000 on Monday with the 7-day infection rate at 2,318 per 100,000 residents.
A number of COVID-19 patients needing hospitalization jumped by 900 in 10 days to reach 2,430 on Monday but less than 200 required intensive care in last six days.
The nation of 10.5 million has 6.8 million people fully vaccinated and 3.8 million who have received a booster shot.