The director of the World Health Organization’s Europe office said Thursday the continent is now entering a “plausible endgame” to the pandemic and that the number of coronavirus deaths is starting to plateau.
Dr. Hans Kluge said at a media briefing that there is a “singular opportunity” for countries across Europe to take control of COVID-19 transmission due to three factors: high levels of immunization due to vaccination and natural infection; the virus’s tendency to spread less in warmer weather; and the lower severity of the Omicron variant.
“This period of higher protection should be seen as a ceasefire that could bring us enduring peace,” he said.
As the winter subsides in much of Europe in the coming weeks, when the virus’s transmission naturally drops, Kluge said the upcoming spring “leaves us with the possibility for a long period of tranquility and a much higher level of population defence against any resurgence in transmission.”
Even if another variant emerges, Kluge said, health authorities in Europe should be able to keep it in check, provided immunization and boosting efforts continue, along with other public health interventions.
He said, however, this demands “a drastic and uncompromising increase in vaccine-sharing across borders,” saying vaccines must be provided to everyone across Europe and beyond. Scientists have repeatedly warned that unless the majority of the world’s population is vaccinated, any opportunities for COVID-19 to keep spreading means it could mutate into deadlier and more transmissible forms.
Numerous countries across Europe, including parts of Britain and Denmark, have dropped nearly all their coronavirus restrictions after saying that Omicron has peaked. Others, including Spain, are now considering whether to consider COVID-19 to be an endemic problem that might be handled more like seasonal flu.
Italy will soon announce a timetable to roll back its COVID-19 curbs, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Wednesday, as a surge in cases fuelled by the Omicron variant started to slow.
At WHO’s Geneva headquarters, director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned this week that the world as a whole is still far from exiting the pandemic.
“We are concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines — and because of Omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity — preventing transmission is no longer possible and no longer necessary,” Tedros said Tuesday. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The agency has said even countries with high levels of vaccination should not succumb to political pressure and release all of their coronavirus measures at once.
Kluge noted that there were 12 million new coronavirus cases across WHO’s European region last week — the highest single weekly total during the pandemic. He said that spike was driven by the hugely infectious Omicron variant, but admissions to hospital intensive care units haven’t risen significantly.
-From The Associated Press and Reuters, last updated at 7:15 a.m. ET
What’s happening across Canada
WATCH | No clear end to Parliament Hill protest for police or residents:
No clear end to Parliament Hill protest for police or residents
13 hours ago
Duration 2:00
Six days into a protest paralyzing areas around Parliament Hill, residents are showing their frustration and Ottawa police say there is no clear way to end it. 2:00
With lab-based testing capacity deeply strained and increasingly restricted, experts say true case counts are likely far higher than reported. Hospitalization data at the regional level is also evolving, with several provinces saying they will report figures that separate the number of people in hospital because of COVID-19 from those in hospital for another medical issue who also test positive for COVID-19.
For more information on what is happening in your community — including details on outbreaks, testing capacity and local restrictions — click through to the regional coverage below.
In Atlantic Canada, the total number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in New Brunswick stood at 165, health officials said Wednesday — a fresh high in the province. Of those, 16 people were in intensive care units, the provincial COVID-19 dashboard showed. The province also reported four additional COVID-related deaths and 381 additional lab-confirmed cases.
In Nova Scotia, some hospitals were facing serious strain on capacity amid pandemic pressures, a health official said. The province, which provides some detail on different types of COVID admissions in its daily releases, said Wednesday that 92 people who were admitted because of COVID-19 were receiving specialized care in a dedicated unit, including 13 people in ICU. An additional 255 people were in hospital with COVID-19, health officials said, including people who were admitted for another reason but tested positive on arrival and those who contracted COVID-19 after being admitted. The province also reported six additional deaths and 395 lab-confirmed cases.
Prince Edward Island health officials said Wednesday that 15 people were in hospital due to COVID-19, including two people in the province’s ICU. “There are eight other people in hospital who were admitted for other reasons and were COVID positive on admission or tested positive after being admitted,” a statement from the province said. Health officials also reported 238 additional lab-confirmed cases.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, health officials said 20 people were in hospital with COVID-19, including nine people in critical care. The province also reported four additional deaths and 248 lab-confirmed cases.
In Central Canada, Ontario’s top doctor is set to hold a news conference on the pandemic later Thursday, his first since public health restrictions began to ease this week. Dr. Kieran Moore’s afternoon briefing comes after modelling from the province’s expert pandemic advisers predicted COVID-19 cases would rise after Monday’s partial reopening.
The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table said relaxing public health measures aimed at controlling the Omicron variant would increase virus spread, but the experts couldn’t say by how much. The group said outcomes will depend partly on how many people have recently been infected, a number that is hard to determine because the province has limited access to PCR tests.
The province’s COVID-19 dashboard showed 2,939 hospitalizations on Wednesday — down by 152 from a day earlier — with 555 people in ICU due to the virus. The province also reported 72 additional deaths and 3,909 lab-confirmed cases.
Quebec, meanwhile, reported 2,730 hospitalizations — down by 122 from a day earlier — with 204 people in intensive care. The province also reported 50 additional deaths and 3,816 lab-confirmed cases.
In the Prairie provinces, Manitoba on Wednesday reported a total of 744 COVID-19 hospitalizations — up by seven from a day earlier — with 54 people in ICUs. The province also reported seven additional deaths and 526 additional lab-confirmed cases.
Manitoba’s chief public health officer said that data shows the province may have passed the peak of the Omicron-fuelled surge and restrictions on gathering sizes and people allowed at sports events will be relaxed beginning on Tuesday.
“The next few weeks will be critical as we monitor these trends and determine if it is appropriate to reduce additional restrictions over the longer term,” Dr. Brent Roussin said.
Saskatchewan on Wednesday reported a pandemic high of 372 hospitalizations on its COVID-19 dashboard — up by two from a day earlier — with 40 in ICUs. The province also reported four additional deaths and 611 lab-confirmed cases.
Health officials in Alberta on Wednesday reported a total of 1,598 COVID-19 hospitalizations — up by 13 from a day earlier — with 106 people in the province’s ICUs. The province also reported 14 additional deaths and 3,024 lab-confirmed cases.
Across the North, the public health state of emergency in Nunavut expires Thursday. The territory on Wednesday reported 22 additional cases of COVID-19. Yukon saw 18 additional cases, while the Northwest Territories reported 148 new cases.
In British Columbia, the province reported 988 COVID-19 hospitalizations — down by 47 from a day earlier — with 136 people in the province’s ICUs. Health officials also reported 18 additional deaths and 1,776 lab-confirmed cases.
-From CBC News and The Canadian Press, last updated at 7:15 a.m. ET
What’s happening around the world
WATCH | U.S. reports say Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine could get emergency authorization for children aged six months to five years by the end of February:
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids under 5 could get approval in February: reports
1 day ago
Duration 2:05
U.S. reports say Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine could get emergency approval for children aged six months to five years by the end of February, much earlier than expected. 2:05
As of early Thursday morning, roughly 385.1 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported around the world, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.7 million.
In the Asia-Pacific region, a total of 55 new COVID-19 infections were found among Olympics-related personnel on Feb. 2, the chair of the Beijing 2022 medical expert panel said on Thursday — the highest daily tally so far.
New Zealand on Thursday announced a phased reopening of its border that has been largely closed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but travel bodies said self-isolation rules need to be removed to revive the struggling tourism sector.
In the Americas, COVID-19 infections and deaths are still increasing, but the rise in infections seems to be slowing in places hit earliest by the Omicron variant, the Pan American Health Organization said.
Mexico, for example, topped five million total confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, registering 42,181 new cases and 573 new deaths, according to health ministry data.
Employees of an assembly factory wait for a bus after receiving a booster shot of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine during a mass vaccination program for people over 50, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, earlier this week. (Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)
Africa has not reached an endemic phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
Meanwhile, health officials in South Africa on Wednesday reported 4,502 additional cases of COVID-19 and 175 deaths.
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia said Thursday that citizens will be required to take the COVID-19 booster shot to be able to travel abroad starting Feb. 9, state media reported. The kingdom is also requiring visitors to present a negative PCR result before entry.
Iran on Wednesday reported 59 additional deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, with 38,160 additional cases reported.
-From Reuters, CBC News and The Associated Press, last updated at 7:55 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. syphilis epidemic slowed dramatically last year, gonorrhea cases fell and chlamydia cases remained below prepandemic levels, according to federal data released Tuesday.
The numbers represented some good news about sexually transmitted diseases, which experienced some alarming increases in past years due to declining condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing and treatment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Last year, cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10% from the year before — the first substantial decline in more than two decades. Gonorrhea cases dropped 7%, marking a second straight year of decline and bringing the number below what it was in 2019.
“I’m encouraged, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way” about the nation’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin. “Something is working.”
More than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia were diagnosed and reported last year — 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, 600,000 of gonorrhea, and more than 209,000 of syphilis.
Syphilis is a particular concern. For centuries, it was a common but feared infection that could deform the body and end in death. New cases plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when infection-fighting antibiotics became widely available, and they trended down for a half century after that. By 2002, however, cases began rising again, with men who have sex with other men being disproportionately affected.
The new report found cases of syphilis in their early, most infectious stages dropped 13% among gay and bisexual men. It was the first such drop since the agency began reporting data for that group in the mid-2000s.
However, there was a 12% increase in the rate of cases of unknown- or later-stage syphilis — a reflection of people infected years ago.
Cases of syphilis in newborns, passed on from infected mothers, also rose. There were nearly 4,000 cases, including 279 stillbirths and infant deaths.
“This means pregnant women are not being tested often enough,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.
What caused some of the STD trends to improve? Several experts say one contributor is the growing use of an antibiotic as a “morning-after pill.” Studies have shown that taking doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex cuts the risk of developing syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
In June, the CDC started recommending doxycycline as a morning-after pill, specifically for gay and bisexual men and transgender women who recently had an STD diagnosis. But health departments and organizations in some cities had been giving the pills to people for a couple years.
Some experts believe that the 2022 mpox outbreak — which mainly hit gay and bisexual men — may have had a lingering effect on sexual behavior in 2023, or at least on people’s willingness to get tested when strange sores appeared.
Another factor may have been an increase in the number of health workers testing people for infections, doing contact tracing and connecting people to treatment. Congress gave $1.2 billion to expand the workforce over five years, including $600 million to states, cities and territories that get STD prevention funding from CDC.
Last year had the “most activity with that funding throughout the U.S.,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.
However, Congress ended the funds early as a part of last year’s debt ceiling deal, cutting off $400 million. Some people already have lost their jobs, said a spokeswoman for Harvey’s organization.
Still, Harvey said he had reasons for optimism, including the growing use of doxycycline and a push for at-home STD test kits.
Also, there are reasons to think the next presidential administration could get behind STD prevention. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced a campaign to “eliminate” the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2030. (Federal health officials later clarified that the actual goal was a huge reduction in new infections — fewer than 3,000 a year.)
There were nearly 32,000 new HIV infections in 2022, the CDC estimates. But a boost in public health funding for HIV could also also help bring down other sexually transmitted infections, experts said.
“When the government puts in resources, puts in money, we see declines in STDs,” Klausner said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists can’t know precisely when a volcano is about to erupt, but they can sometimes pick up telltale signs.
That happened two years ago with the world’s largest active volcano. About two months before Mauna Loa spewed rivers of glowing orange molten lava, geologists detected small earthquakes nearby and other signs, and they warned residents on Hawaii‘s Big Island.
Now a study of the volcano’s lava confirms their timeline for when the molten rock below was on the move.
“Volcanoes are tricky because we don’t get to watch directly what’s happening inside – we have to look for other signs,” said Erik Klemetti Gonzalez, a volcano expert at Denison University, who was not involved in the study.
Upswelling ground and increased earthquake activity near the volcano resulted from magma rising from lower levels of Earth’s crust to fill chambers beneath the volcano, said Kendra Lynn, a research geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and co-author of a new study in Nature Communications.
When pressure was high enough, the magma broke through brittle surface rock and became lava – and the eruption began in late November 2022. Later, researchers collected samples of volcanic rock for analysis.
The chemical makeup of certain crystals within the lava indicated that around 70 days before the eruption, large quantities of molten rock had moved from around 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) to 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the summit to a mile (2 kilometers) or less beneath, the study found. This matched the timeline the geologists had observed with other signs.
The last time Mauna Loa erupted was in 1984. Most of the U.S. volcanoes that scientists consider to be active are found in Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast.
Worldwide, around 585 volcanoes are considered active.
Scientists can’t predict eruptions, but they can make a “forecast,” said Ben Andrews, who heads the global volcano program at the Smithsonian Institution and who was not involved in the study.
Andrews compared volcano forecasts to weather forecasts – informed “probabilities” that an event will occur. And better data about the past behavior of specific volcanos can help researchers finetune forecasts of future activity, experts say.
(asterisk)We can look for similar patterns in the future and expect that there’s a higher probability of conditions for an eruption happening,” said Klemetti Gonzalez.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.
The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.
After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its operations in San Francisco before offering a limited service in Los Angeles.
Before deciding to compete against conventional ride-hailing pioneers Uber and Lyft in California, Waymo unleashed its robotaxis in Phoenix in 2020 and has been steadily extending the reach of its service in that Arizona city ever since.
Driverless rides are proving to be more than just a novelty. Waymo says it now transports more than 50,000 weekly passengers in its robotaxis, a volume of business numbers that helped the company recently raise $5.6 billion from its corporate parent Alphabet and a list of other investors that included venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and financial management firm T. Rowe Price.
“Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.
Despite its inroads, Waymo is still believed to be losing money. Although Alphabet doesn’t disclose Waymo’s financial results, the robotaxi is a major part of an “Other Bets” division that had suffered an operating loss of $3.3 billion through the first nine months of this year, down from a setback of $4.2 billion at the same time last year.
But Waymo has come a long way since Google began working on self-driving cars in 2009 as part of project “Chauffeur.” Since its 2016 spinoff from Google, Waymo has established itself as the clear leader in a robotaxi industry that’s getting more congested.
Electric auto pioneer Tesla is aiming to launch a rival “Cybercab” service by 2026, although its CEO Elon Musk said he hopes the company can get the required regulatory clearances to operate in Texas and California by next year.
Tesla’s projected timeline for competing against Waymo has been met with skepticism because Musk has made unfulfilled promises about the company’s self-driving car technology for nearly a decade.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxis have driven more than 20 million fully autonomous miles and provided more than 2 million rides to passengers without encountering a serious accident that resulted in its operations being sidelined.
That safety record is a stark contrast to one of its early rivals, Cruise, a robotaxi service owned by General Motors. Cruise’s California license was suspended last year after one of its driverless cars in San Francisco dragged a jaywalking pedestrian who had been struck by a different car driven by a human.
Cruise is now trying to rebound by joining forces with Uber to make some of its services available next year in U.S. cities that still haven’t been announced. But Waymo also has forged a similar alliance with Uber to dispatch its robotaxi in Atlanta and Austin, Texas next year.
Another robotaxi service, Amazon’s Zoox, is hoping to begin offering driverless rides to the general public in Las Vegas at some point next year before also launching in San Francisco.
