HÀ NỘI — People who are infected with COVID-19 but are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms can have their isolation and precautions discontinued 10 days after being treated, the Ministry of Health said.
Also, they must have negative rapid antigen tests performed by staff or by the patients themselves under the supervision of medical staff directly or indirectly via remote methods. The rapid test must be licensed by the Ministry of Health.
On December 28, the Ministry of Health sent a document to the hospitals under the Ministry; departments of health of provinces and cities; and medical facilities under ministries and branches, on testing to detect suspected COVID-19 cases and conditions to discharge patients.
Regarding the proposal to use antigen test results to determine the state of recovery and discharge of patients, the ministry has the following guidelines:
COVID-19 patients being treated at healthcare facilities can be discharged if they are COVID-19 patients with clinical symptoms disappearing three days or more before the hospital discharge date, and have a negative RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 or a low viral load (Ct 30) or a negative antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 on the day before discharge (rapid test) licensed by the Ministry of Health.
After being discharged from the hospital, patients need to stay at home and self-monitor for seven days. They have to measure their body temperature twice a day – if the body temperature is higher than 38 degrees Celsius in two consecutive measurements or there are any abnormal clinical signs, it is necessary to notify the local medical centre for timely examination and treatment.
Also, compliance with the 5K message is required.
For COVID-19 patients who have underlying diseases or health problems accompanied by clinical symptoms of COVID-19 that disappear three days or more before discharge from the hospital; have negative RT-PCR test results for SARS-CoV-2 or low virus concentration (Ct 30) or have negative antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 virus before the hospital discharge date (test approved by the Ministry of Health), they can also be discharged.
COVID-19 patients can also be transferred to faculties for treatment of comorbidities or faculties for treatment of underlying diseases (if necessary) in separate rooms; they are to be screened and monitored according to regulations for inpatients; and have their body temperature measured twice a day.
Identify a patient suspected of having COVID-19
According to the Ministry of Health, the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic across the country is complicated, and the number of cases is tending to increase; in order to adapt to the new situation and ensure safety and flexibility in accordance with the current situation, localities and health facilities should base decisions on the real pandemic level at their areas and the health ministry’s temporary guidelines on the management of people infected with COVID-19 to identify cases.
A suspected case of COVID-19 is a person who has tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR or as prescribed in Decision No. 4689/QD-BYT which means having a positive antigen test result for SARS-CoV-2 (by biological rapid test products licensed by the Ministry of Health and approved by it) performed by medical staff or by himself/herself under the supervision of medical personnel directly or indirectly.
A suspected case of COVID-19 is also a person who is asymptomatic but has been in close contact with a suspected case or confirmed case of COVID-19 within the past 14 days and has had two positive antigen test results for SARS-CoV-2 (second test within eight hours of the 1st test result, by biological rapid test products licensed by the Ministry of Health).
If the suspected case has only one positive antigen test result for SARS-CoV-2, a RT-PCR test is required for confirmation. VNS
SINGAPORE – Local and foreign travellers entering Singapore are each allowed to bring with them a maximum of 20 Covid-19 self-test kits that have not been authorised for use here as long as they are approved for use in the country the traveller is arriving from.
This has been the case since Dec 23, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) told The Straits Times.
HSA said it had observed an increase in personal imports of Covid-19 self-test kits into Singapore since October.
It had barred the import of some of these test kits, which have not been evaluated for quality or efficacy, as they may be resold locally.
But with the reopening of borders, HSA said it recognised the need for travellers to bring their own self-test kits to fulfil the necessary testing requirements here.
The maximum quota of 20 self-test kits that can be brought in is based on the expectation that incoming travellers may need to test themselves daily for 14 days, with some allowance for retesting, HSA said.
Currently, those entering Singapore via vaccinated travel lanes need to undergo antigen rapid tests (ARTs) daily for seven days after their arrival. This is on top of a mandatory on-arrival polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
On days three and seven of their arrival, the ARTs are done under supervision at a combined test centre or a quick test centre. Travellers must use test kits that are provided at these centres.
On days two, four, five and six of their arrival, travellers must take self-administered ARTs. These are done using test kits that they purchase themselves.
“As the test kits authorised for use in Singapore may not be readily available in other countries, travellers can bring in test kits which are approved for use from their country of embarkment,” HSA said.
“Members of the public are reminded that the import of self-test kits through parcel post is still not allowed.
“Any onward supply by wholesale of self-test kits is also not permitted and will require licences and authorisation from HSA. Those infringing this can be imprisoned for up to two years and/or fined up to $50,000, if convicted.”
According to HSA’s website, 11 Covid-19 self-test kits have been authorised for use in Singapore as at Nov 23.
They are: Abbott’s PanBio Covid-19 Antigen Self-Test and Panbio Covid-19 Ag Rapid Test Device (Nasal) kits, BD’s Kit for Rapid Detection of Sars-CoV-2 and Veritor At-Home Covid-19 Test kit, SD Biosensor’s Sars-CoV-2 Antigen Self-Test Nasal, Standard Q Covid-19 Ag Home Test and Standard Q Covid-19 Ag Test kits, as well as the Quidel QuickVue At-Home OTC Covid-19 Test kit, Cue Covid-19 Test kit, Lucira Check It Covid-19 test kit and the Acon Biotech Flowflex Sars-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test (Self-Testing) kit.
A total of 88 vessels are under CDCs investigation or observation for COVID-19 outbreaks. Four other vessels are also being monitored by the CDC, according to the latest data.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating more cruise ships due to new COVID-19 cases aboard.
A total of 88 vessels are under CDC’s investigation or observation for COVID-19 outbreaks. Four other vessels are also being monitored by the CDC, according to the latest data on the CDC website.
CDC will follow up with cruise ships when an investigation is required as ships begin to sail with passengers on simulated or restricted voyages under the CDC’s Temporary Extension & Modification of Framework for Conditional Sailing Order, said the agency.
While cruising will always pose some risk of COVID-19 transmission, CDC is committed to working with cruise ship operators to ensure that cruise ship passenger operations are conducted in a way that reduces the risk of COVID-19 transmission among crew members, passengers, and port personnel, said the agency on its website.
COVID-19 cases are surging to record highs again as the Omicron variant continues to drive extremely high infection levels.
The country registered a grim new record of over 510,000 daily COVID-19 cases on Monday, according to data of Johns Hopkins University.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Wednesday accused Israel of tightening the security measures on the border with the Gaza Strip.
Ayman Noufal, a leader of the Hamas armed wing, known as al-Qassam Brigades, told a news briefing in Gaza city that the security measures the Israeli army is tightening on the borders with the Gaza Strip “will not protect it in the future.”
Three weeks ago, the Israeli army had announced completing the construction of the smart barrier around the Gaza Strip after three and a half years of work, at the cost of 3.5 billion Israeli shekels (about 1.109 billion U.S. dollars).
The barrier is about 65 km, including an underground wall equipped with detectors, an upper fence, a sea barrier, a detection system, and shooting observatories.
Also on Wednesday, around 12 militant groups, including al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wings of the militant group of the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine held a joint military maneuver in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian militants take part in a military maneuver in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Dec. 29, 2021. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
San Francisco, Marin and Alameda counties rescinded mask mandate exemptions that fully vaccinated people preserved just two weeks ago, following Californias reinstatement of a universal mask mandate.
San Francisco, along with other Bay Area counties in the U.S. state of California, on Wednesday announced to revoke mask mandate exemptions for fully vaccinated people in non-household settings such as offices and gyms, as COVID-19 cases continue to surge due to the highly contagious omicron variant.
San Francisco, Marin and Alameda counties rescinded the exemptions that they preserved just two weeks ago, following California’s reinstatement of a universal mask mandate. The counties’ new orders take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.
San Francisco on Tuesday also announced the cancellation of the city’s annual New Year’s Eve fireworks show.
Contra Costa County had made a similar move to revoke exemptions on Tuesday.
San Francisco reported 805 cases, the highest single-day total ever on Tuesday, according to state data and analysis by San Francisco Chronicle.
“Actual numbers are certain to be higher because many people are taking home antigen tests and not reporting the results,” the San Francisco Chronicle said in a report.
“This is and will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems on the brink of collapse and again disrupting lives and livelihoods,” said the WHO chief.
The World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned on Wednesday that the more transmissible Omicron together with the currently circulating Delta variants might lead to “a tsunami of cases,” putting immense pressure on national health systems.
Recapping WHO’s response since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Director-General of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing that he’s “highly concerned that Omicron being more transmissible, circulating at the same time as Delta — is leading to a tsunami of cases.”
“This is and will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems on the brink of collapse and again disrupting lives and livelihoods,” he said, citing the pressure as not only new COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization but also a large number of health workers getting sick themselves.
Tedros reiterated his concern over a recent narrative that Omicron has been causing milder or less severe diseases.
Photo taken on March 30, 2021 shows an exterior view of the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia)
“But we are undermining the other side at the same time — it could be dangerous… we shouldn’t undermine the bad news just focusing on the good news,” he said.
“We don’t want people to be complacent, saying this is not severe, this is mild. And we have to be very careful in that narrative,” he said.
According to Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, though Omicron looks like being more transmissible, having a shorter incubation period, and causing a mild disease, it’s based on the largely young population that the variant has been infecting.
A street performer waits for customers next to a mobile COVID-19 testing site on Times Square in New York, the United States, Dec. 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
Since the Omicron wave has not been fully established in the broader population, Ryan said he’s “a little nervous to make positive predictions until we see how well the vaccine protection is going to work in those older and more vulnerable populations.”
“I think it’s really important over the coming weeks that we keep suppressing transmission of both variants to the minimum that we can,” he added.
As the coronavirus spawns a record-breaking wave of infections, new research suggests that rapid tests widely used to identify potential covid-19 cases might be less effective at identifying illness caused by the swiftly spreading omicron variant.
The finding is the latest complication for anyone trying to strike a common-sense balance between being vigilant and returning to normalcy as the country approaches the third year of the pandemic.
Photo Credit: Washington Post photo by Melina Mara
The research, issued Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration and produced by the National Institutes of Health, said the rapid antigen tests – which have been in high demand and often hard to find this holiday season – “do detect the omicron variant but may have reduced sensitivity.”
Although rapid tests showed reduced sensitivity to omicron compared with earlier variants in a lab study, the real-world implications are not clear, said Bruce Tromberg, director of NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and lead of RADx Tech, the joint FDA and NIH effort to speed up development of diagnostics.
President Joe Biden has promised to distribute 500 million rapid tests to the American public. People should still use these tests regularly, Tromberg said, because although they may be less sensitive than originally thought, they remain a highly effective tool for combating an extremely contagious virus.
“The diminished sensitivity from the [lab experiments] pales in comparison” with the increased transmissibility of omicron, Tromberg said. “Even with reduced performance, it will still pick up infections and it will help individuals get treatment sooner.”
Photo Credit: Washington Post photo by Marvin Joseph
There are plenty of infections out there – a record number in fact. The seven-day average for daily new infections jumped to 301,000 Wednesday, up from about 89,000 on Dec. 1, according to health department data compiled by The Washington Post. Hospitalizations have increased more modestly, to about 85,000 confirmed or suspected covid patients, but that is still well below the level of last year’s winter surge. Deaths are up as well, with a seven-day average of 1,532 deaths each day.
The FDA said it has always known antigen tests overall are less sensitive than the PCR molecular tests, which are typically performed in a lab and have about 98% accuracy. If people have symptoms consistent with covid-19 and get a negative rapid test result, the agency recommends a follow-up PCR test.
The news on the rapid tests came in a busy week of updates, revisions and recalculations. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance that lowered the isolation recommendations for people infected with the coronavirus, and who are asymptomatic or showing improvement in symptoms, from 10 days to five.
Quarantine – the period for people exposed to someone known to be infected – dropped by the same amount for people who are vaccinated but not yet boosted. Those who have received a booster shot do not need to quarantine but should wear a mask.
The altered guidance, ambiguous research findings and continuing unknowns about omicron – and, perhaps most of all, the overwhelming desire after two years of a pandemic to return to normal life – have left people once again in the predicament of making personal risk calculations that may be not terribly better than wild guesses.
Those calculations can take into account increasing evidence that omicron, the variant causing the majority of new infections, is less likely to cause severe illness, Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, said Wednesday in an interview with The Post.
“It may turn out that omicron, at least among those who are vaccinated and/or previously infected, is going to turn out to be more of a bothersome upper-respiratory infection than something that causes the degree of morbidity and mortality that we’ve seen with other viruses,” Fauci said.
But for people who are unvaccinated and have not been infected previously, he cautioned, “It is not going to be just a common cold.”
So what about New Year’s Eve? Party? No party? Fauci’s guidance is to keep it small, ideally with family and close friends known to be vaccinated and prudent in their behavior.
“You can’t ask the American public to lock themselves in their closet alone for New Year’s Eve. Because that’s the only way you’re going to be completely without risk,” he said.
And don’t get too wild. In a White House briefing Wednesday, Fauci offered a vision of what’s too risky: “If your plans are to go to a 40-to-50-person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a happy new year? I would strongly recommend that this year we do not do that.”
The new information and guidance on testing accuracy, isolation requirements, rising case counts and changes in virus pathogenicity are a lot to take in, and there is some inherent ambiguity to some of this. For example, the latest guidance from the CDC states that people who have tested positive can stop isolating after five days if they are asymptomatic or their symptoms are “resolving” – which can be a subjective assessment.
“There’s a big difference between having a policy that is just based on people not having symptoms versus one that says your symptoms are resolving. That’s as vague as it gets for a guidance,” said Walid Gellad, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. “I did not understand what that means.”
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the decision was based on a growing body of science, as well as internal agency modeling, showing that people are most infectious over a five-day period that starts about two days before symptoms. Transmissibility drops dramatically after that.
After five days, the rapid tests are not likely to be sensitive enough to be reliable indicators of whether transmission is happening, Walensky said. The PCR tests, meanwhile, are more accurate in detecting the presence of the virus but are so sensitive they can identify traces of the virus many weeks after a person is no longer infectious.
Some outside experts also have questioned why the CDC is not calling for people to have a negative test – a rapid test or a PCR test – before exiting isolation.
Questions about the accuracy of rapid tests factored into the decision to not recommend a negative test before exiting isolation, Walensky said in an interview with The Post. She said the CDC saw unclear results when people performed the tests three days in a row. The tests also don’t indicate how transmissible a person may be later in their infection, she said.
“We actually don’t know how well it works and its predictive value when we use it as an individual test for the purposes of transmissibility later in disease,” Walensky said.
Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner who is on the board of drugmaker Pfizer, said it is reasonable to adjust the official guidance given the fluid nature of the pandemic and the mutations that have given the virus a different level of transmissibility and virulence. But he said the messaging has not always been clear.
“It makes sense that we’d approach this wave differently, but we’ve struggled to explain that effectively, or to make accommodations for how we’ll continue to protect the pockets of vulnerability that remain, especially people who have weakened immune systems and young children who haven’t been offered vaccines,” Gottlieb said.
“We haven’t used all the tools we have to allow people to adjust the measures they should be taking based on their individual risk,” Gottlieb said.
Officials said masks remain important, along with booster shots for people who are vaccinated and eligible for another shot. And officials emphasized overwhelming evidence shows vaccination creates a much better layer of protection against severe illness. The CDC said people exiting isolation and quarantine should wear a mask for an additional five days to reduce any risk of transmissibility that may remain.
This week’s guidance on isolation and quarantine followed updates the agency issued for health-care workers last week to stave off staff shortages. Some experts lauded the move, while some doctors and nurses said they could wind up being forced to work when still sick.
Omicron accounts for about 59% of new infections, according to new estimates from the CDC – a lower percentage than the agency reported earlier this month. The trend is still remarkably vertical and a sign that omicron is rapidly overtaking the delta variant.
Walensky said infections have increased 60% during the past week, while hospitalizations have risen only 14%. Hospitalizations always lag behind the rise in infections amid a wave of cases, but Fauci said multiple lines of evidence, including laboratory experiments on mice and hamsters, suggest the omicron variant is innately less likely to cause severe disease than previous variants.
That fundamental change, possibly attributable to the omicron variant of the virus remaining high in the respiratory tract and not penetrating deep into the lungs, may be combining with widespread immunity in the population to create the lower rates of severe disease, he said in the briefing.
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that a Washington Post interview with the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol shows the committee is trying to establish a criminal complaint against Trump, something the lawyers say is beyond the committees authority.
The lawyers filed a supplemental brief alerting the justices to a Dec. 23 Post article featuring an interview with Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the committee’s chairman. In the article, Thompson said the committee is looking intently into Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 as it considers whether to recommend that the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into the former president.
“The Washington Post has confirmed what was already apparent – the Committee is indeed seeking any excuse to refer a political rival for criminal charges, and they are using this investigation to do so,” Trump lawyer Jesse Binnall wrote.
Binnall said the committee is acting as “an inquisitorial tribunal seeking evidence of criminal activity,” which he said is “outside of any of Congress’s legislative powers.”
Trump asked the Supreme Court earlier this month to halt the release of his White House records to the select committee, saying the case presents a unique conflict between a sitting president and his rival predecessor.
Lawyers for Trump have asked the justices to put on hold a unanimous ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which rejected his assertions of executive privilege and his request to keep secret roughly 800 pages of his papers. President Joe Biden determined the material could be released to the committee.
Trump said the high court should take the case to determine whether that is proper.
Binnall wrote that The Post interview with Thompson fortified that request.
In the article, Thompson said Trump’s delayed response in asking those who had invaded the Capitol to leave could be a factor in deciding whether to make a criminal referral, which is when Congress informs the Justice Department it believes a crime has been committed. It would then be up to federal prosecutors to decide whether to pursue a charge.
“That dereliction of duty causes us real concern,” Thompson said. “And one of those concerns is that whether or not it was intentional, and whether or not that lack of attention for that longer period of time, would warrant a referral.”
In the article, former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason warned that the committee’s focus on criminal referrals could also boost the claims of those resisting subpoenas that the lawmakers’ inquiry doesn’t have a legislative purpose, but rather, is meant to uncover crimes.
The release of records to the committee has been hotly contested. After Biden said the committee was entitled to certain information it sought, Trump sued.
But both a district judge and the appeals court disagreed with the former president.
“The President of the United States and Congress have each made the judgment that access to this subset of presidential communication records is necessary to address a matter of great constitutional moment for the Republic,” the appeals court wrote. It said decisions about executive privilege were best left to the sitting president.
Lawyers for the House committee are scheduled to file a response to the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The omicron variants swift global spread is leading some governments to shorten quarantine requirements for fear that the rising numbers of people being sent into isolation for infections or exposures could cripple economies, schools and health-care systems.
Governments say these are pragmatic responses to a changing virus. But constantly shifting guidelines have also led to widespread confusion over the rules, and to accusations that leaders crafted policies around business and political prerogatives rather than public health priorities.
Similar debates have erupted in the United States since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week shortened its required isolation for infected health-care workers amid omicron’s spread. Criticism escalated when the CDC on Monday said anyone vaccinated and asymptomatic – not just those in the health-care sector – could exit isolation without testing after five days.
Israel on Wednesday dropped its mandatory seven-day quarantine for vaccinated people exposed to omicron amid fears that the rate of isolation was leading the country, which has already banned foreign travelers, into a de facto lockdown.
The move followed the hard-hit United Kingdom, which last week shortened its isolation period for coronavirus infections from 10 to seven days alongside two negative results from at-home rapid antigen tests, which are less reliable than PCR tests. A government minister said Wednesday there were no plans to reduce the isolation period further.
Scientists in some countries have supported rolling back isolation periods, citing modeling that the omicron variant causes shorter periods of infectiousness and that fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough cases have a low risk of serious disease.
But others have cautioned that there’s much still unknown about when and to what extent an individual with omicron remains contagious.
Public messaging has also centered on the day-to-day implications, with officials warning that hospitals, school systems and many businesses could collapse unless less stringent isolation protocols are implemented.
In Canada, Quebec and Ontario are weighing following the CDC’s lead to a conditional five-day quarantine. On Tuesday, Quebec changed its rules to allow some medical staff exposed or infected with the virus to continue working, warning that it could otherwise soon have 10,000 health-care workers off the floor and in isolation.
Authorities in Germany, where individuals who test positive or have a close exposure must quarantine for two weeks, are also weighing changes.
“Of course we have to review the current quarantine rules,” Bavaria’s state premier Markus Söder told Bild newspaper on Tuesday. “With a rapidly growing epidemic, we cannot simply paralyze the whole country from one day to the next.”
Italy on Wednesday removed mandatory quarantine for close contacts of covid-19 cases if the individual recently received a second or booster shot or had just recovered from an infection themselves. Previously the vaccinated had to quarantine for seven days and unvaccinated for 10 days after a close exposure.
Nino Cartabellotta, head of the Gimbe Health Foundation, told Italian news outlets that at current rates in a few weeks “there could be 5 to 10 million contacts to be sent to quarantine, and this is not possible,” Cartabellotta said, Reuters reported.
Italy recorded nearly 100,000 coronavirus cases Wednesday, about double the peak from any previous wave. The government has banned New Year’s Eve celebrations and shut nightclubs for the next month.
In recent days, South Africa – among the first countries to report detecting the variant in late November – has had the starkest about-turns. On Thursday, the government announced the end of contact tracing and isolation requirements for anyone except individuals who are both infected and symptomatic, citing what it said was omicron’s uncontrollable spread coupled with widespread immunity accrued through vaccines and previous infections.
“A number of people, including children who are in contact with covid-19 positive people, lose their income and valuable school time while staying at home without symptoms,” said a government statement.
The response from the public was largely unexpected. The health department was “inundated with media, stakeholders and public enquiries and comments,” the government said, leading to a policy recall on Tuesday. The government said it would reinstate the old rules as it further deliberated.
The emphasis on needing shorter or no quarantines to keep economies going has opened governments up to criticism that they are crafting policies around their own interests.
In Quebec, it was these stark realities that led health authorities to class medical workers differently.
“Omicron’s contagion is so exponential that a huge number of personnel have to be withdrawn and that poses a risk to the network capacity,” Christian Dubé, Quebec’s provincial health minister, said at a news conference Tuesday. He said around 7,000 medical workers were out Monday due to the virus.
“In previous waves, we wanted to identify and remove at-risk employees as quickly as possible,” he added. “With the current level of vaccination, we have to do otherwise. We have no choice.”
Horacio Arruda, Quebec’s public health director, said infected health-care workers who are not “in good shape” will not be sent to work under the amended protocols. He said potential changes could include covid-positive health-care workers treating only covid-positive patients, while being barred from eating or taking breaks with their colleagues at work.
“The thing is to balance the care we must give to people and the risk of covid-19,” Arruda told reporters. “If I have a heart attack soon and I have to go to intensive care, I want to make sure that there are doctors who can treat me or else I will die.”
Canada’s seven-day average of coronavirus cases has jumped roughly 124% in the past week. Several provinces are smashing records, though analysts say the figures are likely an undercount due to stress on testing and tracing systems across the country.
In Israel, authorities have expressed similar worries about hospital, transportation and business strains as the country battles spiking flu cases and braces for more omicron outbreaks, despite having had one of the most rapid and wide-reaching coronavirus vaccination campaigns.
Israel on Monday began a two-week trial of a fourth vaccine dose, after rolling out booster shots starting this summer.
As of Wednesday, only unvaccinated individuals exposed to the virus will have to quarantine for seven days. The vaccinated can instead be released with a negative PCR test result, along with the recommendation to steer clear for 10 days of large crowds and those at high risk of infection.
Authorities have put in place strict border controls and vaccine or testing requirements. In publicly run hospitals, infected medical staff must self-isolate for at least a week and then receive three negative PCR results before being allowed to return to work, said Sheba Hospital spokesperson Steve Walz.
Some officials, however, have recommended easing travel restrictions, citing that the economically punitive measure cannot stop the omicron variant once it’s there.
“The moment infections are spreading, there is no point in stopping entry from abroad,” Heath Minister Nitzan Horowitz said in an interview with Israel’s KAN public broadcasting.
But critics say the government should focus on community-level infection controls, rather than policies that appear based on business or political pressures.
“The state needs to cancel every event that might contribute to spreading infection,” Sarit Rosenblum, a health reporter for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, wrote in a commentary Wednesday. “The thought of New Year’s parties being held as usual this year is untenable in the face of such a serious danger.”
President Joe Biden plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday afternoon amid tensions surrounding Russias military buildup on the border with Ukraine.
During a conversation requested by the Russian government, Biden plans to tell Putin that while the United States is prepared to proceed diplomatically, it also stands ready to respond to further incursions with economic sanctions, NATO reinforcement and assistance to Ukrainian efforts to defend itself, according to a senior administration official.
The conversation will mark the second Biden-Putin call in a month. In a Dec. 7 videoconference, Biden warned his counterpart not to mount a new invasion and laid out the economic and security costs that Russia would face if the Kremlin went down that path.
“The Biden administration continues to engage in extensive diplomacy with our European Allies and partners, consulting and coordinating on a common approach in response to Russia’s military buildup on the border with Ukraine,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement. She said the call would cover “a range of topics, including upcoming diplomatic engagements with Russia.”
The planned call comes during a week when Biden has been away from Washington, splitting his time between Rehoboth Beach and Wilmington, Del., and staying largely out of public view.
Russia is looking to extract security concessions from the United States and its European partners, while simultaneously threatening a new invasion of Ukraine, a U.S. partner nation that is not a member of NATO. Moscow has made several demands, saying Washington needs to provide written guarantees that NATO will no longer expand eastward, a point the White House has dismissed as a nonstarter.
The Biden administration has stressed that Russia will need to begin showing signs of de-escalation before any sort of “diplomatic end game” is possible, a point repeated by the senior administration official previewing the call to reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House. The official noted that the United States has continued to observe a “significant Russian troop presence” near the Ukrainian border that is not static and continues “to be gravely concerned” about what moves the Russians have been making near the Ukrainian border.
The official said it was not clear why Putin had requested the call but that “it will take a high level of engagement to address this and to try to find a path of de-escalation.”
“I think both leaders believe that there is genuine value in direct leader-to-leader engagement, that we are in a moment of crisis and have been for some weeks now given the Russian buildup,” the official said.
The administration has previously warned of a variety of responses, which the official reiterated Wednesday. Those include sanctions exceeding those that were imposed in 2014, after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine; increasing the U.S. force posture in Europe; and providing Ukraine with additional material assistance to help it defend itself against a potential invasion.
“We are united with our allies in our willingness to engage in principled diplomacy with Russia,” the senior official briefing reporters on Wednesday said, adding that the United States is in close contact with allies and “will proceed on the principle of nothing about them without them.”
Those contacts included a Wednesday conversation between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a statement, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the call focused on “Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s borders, efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and upcoming diplomatic engagements with Russia.”
The advertised contacts also include planned meetings of the NATO-Russia Council, as well as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and talks between Russia and the United States in Geneva as part of the Strategic Security Dialogue, all expected to take place in the second week of January.
United States and Russian delegations are planning to sit down for security talks Jan. 10. But the senior administration official previewing the call said, “It is not our expectation that President Biden and President Putin will participate in the session.”
The Biden administration has said that talks must proceed on the basis of reciprocity and that the president plans to bring up concerns that Washington has about Russia’s activities in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe.
Since October, Putin has massed tens of thousands of Russian troops, as well as materiel, near the border with Ukraine, and the Biden administration has said the Russian military is making plans for a new invasion.
An unclassified U.S. intelligence analysis revealed by The Washington Post earlier this year found that Russia was preparing to move as many as 175,000 personnel in preparation for an invasion, though the White House has said Putin hasn’t made a decision about whether to launch an offensive. U.S. officials and military analysts have predicted that if Putin decides to proceed, the offensive could take place in late January or February.
The Kremlin has denied any such offensive is in the offing but has taken advantage of the situation to force long-sought, wide-ranging talks with Washington on European security issues.
The White House has said the talks will take place in a variety of formats, not only bilaterally between Washington and Moscow but also through the NATO-Russia Council and the OSCE. Biden administration officials have emphasized that the United States is not planning to make any deals about security in Europe without the involvement of its European allies.
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Palestinian militants take part in a military maneuver in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Dec. 29, 2021. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)
Photo taken on March 30, 2021 shows an exterior view of the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia)
A street performer waits for customers next to a mobile COVID-19 testing site on Times Square in New York, the United States, Dec. 20, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
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