The number of reported COVID-19 cases continued to fall last week across the globe, except in the Americas and Africa, according to the World Health Organization’s weekly pandemic report.
COVID-19 cases increased by about a third across Africa and 13% in the Americas, according to the health agency’s report.
Meanwhile, Washington and federal government websites are still offering free COVID-19 tests. Follow our guide to order at-home tests from Washington state or from the federal government.
We’re updating this page with the latest news about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the U.S. and the world. Click here to see the rest of our coronavirus coverage and here to see how we track the daily spread across Washington.
The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 15 million people were killed either by coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.
In a report Thursday, the U.N. agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the figure as “sobering,” saying it should prompt countries to invest more in their capacities to quell future health emergencies.
Scientists tasked by WHO with calculating the actual number of COVID-19 deaths between January 2020 and the end of last year estimated there were between 13.3 million and 16.6 million deaths that were either caused directly by the coronavirus or were somehow attributed to the pandemic’s impact on health systems, like people with cancer unable to seek treatment when hospitals were full of COVID patients.
The figures are based on country-reported data and statistical modelling but only about half of countries provided information. WHO said it wasn’t yet able to break down the figures to distinguish between direct deaths from COVID-19 and others caused by the pandemic, but said a future project examining death certificates would probe this.
Please keep wearing masks on public transit, CDC urges
People should continue wearing masks on public transportation even though it’s no longer required by law, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
The federal government’s public transit mask mandate was scheduled to expire Tuesday, but a federal judge struck it down two weeks earlier instead.
“CDC continues to recommend that all people — passengers and workers, alike — properly wear a well-fitting mask or respirator in indoor public transportation conveyances and transportation hubs to provide protection for themselves and other travelers in these high volume, mixed population settings,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a news release.
The Justice Department has appealed the anti-mask mandate ruling from Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump.
COVID-19 cases have continued to tick upward due to the omicron BA. 2 subvariant. On Tuesday, case rates were highest in previous bellwether locations such as New York and Washington state.
How to ask a seat mate to mask: The new etiquette for maskless flights
In the weeks since a federal judge in Florida struck down the federal mask mandate for planes and other transportation settings, Americans have met the change with a mix of excitement and concern. Some travelers welcomed the news, even cheering on planes when pilots announced the ruling. For others, the prospect of flying with unmasked seatmates has been a source of anxiety.
If you are nervous about flying on an aircraft full of bare faces, you can take steps to make the journey less daunting.
Travelers might consider doing a cost-benefit analysis on whether to fly for pleasure trips. “I think the public really does want to say to themselves, ‘OK, what am I willing to do and not do?’” Thomas Plante, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University, said. “‘What’s worth it and not worth it?’”
If wearing a mask makes you feel safer, Plante said, you can wear a quality one, such as an N95 or KN95, regardless of what others choose to do.
Airline analyst Timothy O’Neil-Dunne also recommended keeping a fair distance from your fellow travelers where possible — though he noted that can be tough in crowded airports.
Passengers who find their anxiety ramping up can also practice diaphragmatic breathing and mindfulness techniques, Plante said. Distracting yourself by listening to soothing music, reading a book or picking up another activity can also be helpful. But plan those strategies ahead of time.
Asking someone seated near you to mask up requires a nuanced approach, and experts don’t recommend it in every scenario. If you’re going to ask someone, Plante said, you should “appeal to their goodness and say, ‘I hate to bother you with this, but I’m visiting my elderly relative and I’m really worried about the virus’ or ‘I’m immunocompromised. Would you be willing to mask up for this trip?’”
Seattle police, city officials met WA inspectors with suspicion during mask compliance investigations, reports say
A pair of investigations by the Washington Department of Labor and Industries into widespread refusal by Seattle police officers to comply with mask mandates during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic were hampered by incidents of open suspicion and stubbornness by officers and their commanders, according to inspection reports.
Copies of the reports obtained by The Seattle Times, issued in January and July 2021, point to numerous instances when officers failed to wear protective masks or maintain social distancing, resulting in a sharply critical Office of Inspector General review issued last month.
The inspector general, one of three civilian watchdog agencies that monitors Seattle Police Department operations, concluded officers violated the law by failing to wear masks and observe social distancing — and that the department’s command staff failed to make them comply.
The state safety and health inspection reports cite instances when SPD officials “refused to answer questions” during inspections andbarred compliance and safety officers from accessing SPD facilities — even after the inspections were approved by a lieutenant and inspectors showed their government identification.
The July report said police officials “claimed they had never heard” of the state Department of Labor and Industries or its occupational safety and health division.
The same report said credentialed inspectors were denied access to Seattle police’s West Precinct in April 2021 “due to concerns that [the precinct] housed Criminal Justice Information Systems.”ADVERTISINGSkip AdSkip AdSkip Ad
“Employer refused and/or was unable to answer questions regarding their masking, social distancing and meal time policies,” the report said. “They also would not provide information on how frequently the desks in the report writing area or gym were used,” and refused the inspectors’ request to interview officers during the inspection.
The vanishing variants: Lessons from gamma, iota and mu
In early 2021, scientists in Colombia discovered a worrisome new coronavirus variant. This variant, eventually known as mu, had several troubling mutations that experts believed could help it evade the immune system’s defenses.
Over the following months, mu spread swiftly in Colombia, fueling a new surge of COVID-19 cases. By the end of August, it had been detected in dozens of countries, and the World Health Organization had designated it a “variant of interest.”
“Mu was starting to make some noise globally,” said Joseph Fauver, a genomic epidemiologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and an author of a recent study on the variant.
And then it fizzled. Today, the variant has all but vanished.
US expands pandemic asylum limits while preparing to end them
The Biden administration has begun expelling Cubans and Nicaraguans to Mexico under pandemic-related powers to deny migrants a chance to seek asylum, expanding use of the rule even as it publicly says it has been trying to unwind it, officials said Wednesday.
The U.S. struck an agreement with Mexico to expel up to 100 Cubans and 20 Nicaraguans a day from three locations: San Diego; El Paso, Texas; and Rio Grande Valley, Texas, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the effort.
The expulsions began April 27 and will end May 22, the official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the agreement has not been made public. They are carried out under Title 42 authority, which was named for a public health law and used to expel migrants on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Title 42 is due to expire May 23.
The U.S. and Mexico agreed April 26 to very limited expulsions of Cubans and Nicaraguans, according to a high-level Mexican official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. It was prompted by higher numbers of migrants from those two countries coming to the U.S. border.
