People wearing face masks ride the Gloria funicular in Lisbon on April 19, 2022. (ARMANDO FRANCA / AP)
TORONTO / FRANKFURT / HELSINKI / WASHINGTON / LISBON – Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Thursday issued a government decree removing the mandatory use of masks for almost all situations.
According to the president's website, Rebelo "promulgated a governmental order" related to COVID-19 restrictions, which include reducing the mask-wearing mandate.
The Council of Ministers agreed that conditions have been met for the non-compulsory use of masks, said Portuguese Minister of Health Marta Temido at a press conference after a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
But masks are still mandatory in places "frequented by vulnerable people," such as nursing homes, health facilities and public transport, said the minister.
A healthcare worker dons a bouffant cap as staff treat patients suffering from coronavirus disease at Humber River Hospital's Intensive Care Unit, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on April 29, 2021. (COLE BURSTON / AFP)
Canada
Some hospitals in Canada's most populous provinces are canceling or postponing medical procedures in the face of another wave of the coronavirus pandemic, increasing backlogs of procedures that health practitioners say will take years to work through and could cost more lives.
There are some signs the sixth COVID-19 wave may be peaking in Ontario, Canada's most populous province. But hospitals are facing a double whammy of new COVID-19 infections and, to a much greater degree, health workers off sick or isolating due to COVID-19 just as some had begun to tackle pandemic backlogs.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario are below their January peak but, as a lagging indicator, keep rising after estimated infections may be peaking.
Health worker absences are hitting operations when burnout is high and as hospitals struggle to cope with years of deferred care, administrators say.
There are between 225,000 and 250,000 people in Ontario awaiting surgeries, the province's health agency told Reuters, up from about 200,000 before the pandemic.
Hospitals are strapped for staff. The vacancy rate in the health and social assistance sector was 5.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, the highest quarter since at least 2015, according to Statistics Canada.
This file photo dated Jan 7, 2021 shows the CureVac company headquarters in Tuebingen, Germany. (SEBASTIAN GOLLNOW / DPA VIA AP, FILE)
CureVac and GSK
CureVac and GSK's second-generation vaccine candidate targeting two recent COVID-19 variants has been shown to be highly effective in preclinical studies on mice, CureVac said, as it seeks to catch up with rivals' development work.
A study in mice showed that the bivalent vaccine candidate, designed to address the Beta and Delta variants of the coronavirus, elicited neutralizing antibody levels that were comparable to the monovalent vaccine candidates targeting only one of the variants.
"During exposure of the vaccinated animals to either the Beta or the Delta variant, the bivalent mRNA vaccine significantly reduced the viral load in the animals," CureVac said in a statement on Thursday.
While the early results point to potentially broader protection from one bivalent shot compared to a vaccine that only addresses one variant, validation via much more onerous testing on humans will be required.
Germany's CureVac has specialized in mRNA, the same technology used by the BioNTech-Pfizer partnership as well as by Moderna for their established COVID-19 shots.
After failed efforts to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to market last year, CureVac intensified its work with partner GlaxoSmithKline on improved vaccine versions.
A passenger wearing a face mask checks in at the Helsinki Airport, Finland, on June 21, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Finland
Finland appears to be past its latest COVID-19 peak, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM) said here on Thursday.
There are clear signs of change for the better in the coronavirus pandemic in Finland, the ministry said at a joint press conference with the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), adding that the number of confirmed infections in country has been decreasing for three consecutive weeks.
By Thursday noon, a total of 1,000,472 COVID-19 cases had been diagnosed in Finland. Of these, 50,889 cases were reported in the past seven days. Between March 21 and April 3, the number of diagnosed cases was 95,636, and between April 4 and April 17 the respective figure was 60,820.
However, regional differences remain in the infection numbers.
The COVID-19 workload of hospitals across Finland has been gradually decreasing.
Two weeks ago, Finland authorized a fourth vaccine dose for people aged 80 and older. Liisa-Maria Voipio-Pulkki, a leading expert at the STM, said that so far only 50 percent of those cleared for the fourth dose have received the shot.
Cars waits to enter Canadian customs at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, New York on Aug 9, 2021. (DEREK GEE / THE BUFFALO NEWS VIA AP)
United States
The United States government said on Thursday it was extending a requirement that non-US citizens crossing land or ferry terminals at the US-Mexico and US-Canada borders must be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The requirements were first adopted in November as part of reopening the United States to land crossings by foreign tourists after the borders had been closed to most visitors since March 2020. The vaccination requirements had been set to expire on Thursday unless they were extended.
International air travelers over the age of 2 regardless of citizenship must provide a negative test for the virus before arriving and non US citizens must also show proof of vaccination. People traveling at land or ferry crossings do not need to provide a negative test.
There are some limited exceptions to the rules including for those who have recently recovered from COVID-19.
The Homeland Security Department said the decision was made after consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says vaccines are the most effective public health measure to protect people from severe COVID-19 related illness or death.
This photograph taken on March 5, 2021 shows the flag of the World Health Organization at their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization on Thursday endorsed the use of Pfizer Inc's oral COVID-19 antiviral treatment in high-risk patients after an analysis of trial data by the UN agency showed the therapy dramatically cut the risk of hospitalization.
The recommendation comes as thousands of people die of COVID-19 every week, despite a waning global infection rate. Of existing COVID-19 treatments, Pfizer's Paxlovid is by far the most potent, the WHO said.
Other therapies include Merck & Co's rival pill molnupiravir, Gilead Sciences' intravenous remdesivir and antibody treatments. read more
A WHO analysis of two Paxlovid clinical trials involving nearly 3,100 patients suggested it reduced the risk of hospitalization by 85 percent. In high-risk patients – those with over 10 percent risk of hospitalization – using Paxlovid could lead to 84 fewer hospitalizations per 1,000 patients, the agency said.
"These therapeutics do not replace vaccination. They just give us another treatment option for those patients that do get infected that are at higher risk," said Janet Diaz, WHO lead on clinical management, referring to patients with underlying chronic conditions, the immunocompromised or unvaccinated.
However, there are challenges that could limit the adoption of Paxlovid. Given it needs to be taken in the early stages of disease to be effective, access to quick and accurate tests are imperative to identify patients.
It can also interact with many common medications, complicating its use. In addition, Paxlovid has not been investigated for use in pregnant women, breastfeeding women or children.
Separately, the WHO also updated its recommendation on Gilead’s remdesivir, saying it should be used in mild or moderate COVID-19 patients at high risk of hospitalization.
