(Bloomberg) — Canada’s capital declared a state of emergency Sunday as police struggled to rein in ongoing protests largely among truckers against vaccine mandates.
More U.S. schools are likely to begin lifting mask mandates soon as the overall risk from the omicron wave eases, said Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. But he warned, with infections still high in many parts of the U.S.: “We’re tragically still in this fight.”
China put a city of 4 million people into lockdown. Beijing Olympics organizers reported 10 new infections among athletes and officials arriving for the Winter Games.
Key Developments:
- Virus Tracker: Cases top 394.5 million; deaths pass 5.7 million
- Vaccine Tracker: More than 10.2 billion shots administered
- Beijing Olympics locks out omicron but internet is open
- CDC expands hunt for early warnings of Covid in sewage waste
- Covid rebellion brews in Canada, sending warning across globe
- Is Covid becoming endemic? What would that mean?: QuickTake
Ottawa Declares Emergency as Protests Intensify (5 p.m. NY)
Canada’s capital declared a state of emergency Sunday as police struggled to rein in ongoing protests against vaccine mandates.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who declared the emergency, said in a statement that the increasingly rowdy demonstrations posed a “serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents.” Hundreds of trucks continued to occupy the downtown area near Canada’s parliament with no sign that the protesters planned to leave.
The protests started in reaction to Canadian and U.S. laws that went into effect in January, requiring truckers crossing the border to be fully vaccinated. They have since morphed into a rally against Covid restrictions more broadly.
Gottlieb Expects U.S. Schools to Ease Masking (1:23 p.m. NY)
More U.S. schools are likely to begin lifting mask mandates soon as the overall risk from the omicron wave eases, said Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
“We can start to lean forward and take a little bit more risk and try to at least make sure that students in schools have some semblance of normalcy for this spring term,” Gottlieb, a Pfizer Inc. board member, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “A lot of kids haven’t really known a normal school day for two years now.”
He said, however, “we’re tragically still in this fight,” even as infections decline around the U.S. “Some parts of the country still are in the thick of their omicron wave, coming down, but still in the thick of it,” he said.
Tributes to India’s ‘Nightingale’ (11:55 p.m. NY)
India’s central bank postponed its interest-rate review by a day as the nation and its neighbors mourn the death of celebrated singer Lata Mangeshkar after being diagnosed with Covid-19. She was 92.
The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee will now meet Feb. 8-10, the authority said in a statement late Sunday. Its decision will be announced Thursday.
Mangeshkar, known as the “Nightingale of India,” received her home country’s highest civilian award during a career spanning more than six decades, as well as love and respect for her music from across the subcontinent. She had been hospitalized since Jan. 8 after testing positive.
Australia to Reopen to Tourists (11:49 a.m. NY)
Australia plans to open its borders to international tourists as soon as possible, a government minister said Sunday, following a report that they will be allowed back by the end of February after a Covid-related hiatus of almost two years.
“We are getting ready to open as soon as we can,” Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said in an ABC TV interview. “We don’t have all the information we need to be able to take the decision, but we are very close.”
Overseas tourists could be back within two or three weeks, the Herald Sun paper reported earlier on Sunday, citing an unnamed senior government source. An announcement from the government may come as soon as Monday following a meeting of the National Security Committee, the paper said.
U.K. Cases Lowest Since December (11:22 a.m. NY)
The U.K. reported another 54,095 cases on Sunday, the lowest figure since Dec. 12. Infections have been declining since the omicron wave peaked in early January, with the seven-day average down 5% to 83,474. Another 75 fatalities were reported Sunday.
The country has stopped requiring those who test positive on lateral-flow devices to confirm the result with a laboratory PCR test. However, reinfections are also included as of last week.
China Sticks to Covid-Zero Plans (8:36 a.m. NY)
China has no plans to adjust its zero-Covid-tolerance policy for the time being, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times in an interview.
“We previously thought Covid-19 could be basically contained through vaccines, but now it seems that there’s no simple method to control it except with comprehensive measures, although vaccines are the most important weapon,” Wu said.
China has vaccinated 86.8% of its population with two doses, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, but is behind other nations in booster shots. Its domestically produced vaccines do not use the mRNA technology widely used in countries with advanced booster campaigns.
China Puts 4 Million Into Lockdown (6:19 am. NY)
The southern Chinese city of Baise began a citywide lockdown on Sunday after 98 people tested positive for Covid-19, China Central Television reported, citing a local press conference.
An additional 87 results are still pending review, the report said. Mass testing of 207,506 people was rolled out after a person who traveled to Baise from Shenzhen tested positive on Feb. 4.
The city with 4 million population in the province of Guangxi had previously reported a total of 43 positive cases during the mass testing.
Israel Severe Cases Hit Record (5:03 p.m. HK)
The number of serious coronavirus cases in Israel reached 1,263 on Sunday, the highest reported since the beginning of the pandemic. Before Saturday the previous record of 1,193 severe cases was set in January 2021.
At the same time, the number of new daily infections is declining, with about 38,000 new cases on Friday, compared with 49,500 the previous Friday, and a peak of more than 85,000 at the height of the omicron wave.
Israel was one of the first countries to roll out vaccines and booster shots, offering a fourth dose to higher-risk people last month.
Hong Kong Finds 342 Local Infections (5:40 p.m. HK)
Hong Kong reported 342 positive Covid-19 cases on Sunday, health authorities said in a press conference, the second day in a row that the number surpassed 300.
All of the latest infections were local, with 136 listed as untraceable. Fifteen cases were detected in public housing estates in Tuen Mun and Sha Tin, where more than 7,200 residents have been tested, officials said. More than 300 preliminary positive cases were reported.
“There are invisible transmission chains in the community,” Ronald Lam, director of health, said during the press conference. He added that is impossible to project the peak of the current wave.
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