Spain leaves the extreme risk of coronavirus and will address a new surveillance strategy

Spain has come out of the extreme risk of coronavirus transmission by dropping below 500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (486), although the total number of deaths already exceeds 100,000. This scenario poses a change in the epidemiological surveillance strategy that will be analyzed on March 10 with the autonomous communities in Zaragoza.

The celebration of the Mobile Word Congress in Barcelona, ​​a reflection of the recovery of normality due to the pandemic. EFE/Enric Fontcuberta

The average number of infections in Spain reached the extreme or very high risk of coronavirus transmission on December 17 and continued to rise until reaching the peak of the sixth wave on Friday, January 21, with 3,418 cases per 100,000 inhabitants after the outbreak of the omicron variant.

After the meeting this afternoon of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, at a press conference, considered that Spain is “on the right track” and that for that reason the new scenarios must be analyzed epidemiological.

Thus, Darias has announced the holding on March 10 of a meeting in Zaragoza of the Government with the autonomous communities and epidemiological experts to address the global health surveillance strategy and the transition to a new model “jointly” throughout the national territory and in coordination with the European Union.

Asked if there has been a debate about eliminating the mandatory nature of masks indoors (it is no longer mandatory outdoors) and if the proposal to start by removing them in schools, as proposed by Catalonia and Andalusia, has been discussed, the minister has forwarded to the meeting on March 10 in Zaragoza.

“When we go together we advance further, we must work in a rhythmic manner to take firm steps forward”, he added.

The Ministry of Health has decided to change the periodicity, now from Monday to Friday, of the national epidemiological evolution reports. Thus, the vaccination report will be given one day a week from the next and the incidence, infections, deaths and hospital occupation will be issued two days a week from March 14.

The data

The cumulative incidence it has dropped 29 points since yesterday from 515 to 486 cases per 100,000.

Above this extreme risk of transmission of the virus are Galicia, the Canary Islands and Murcia with more than 700 cases; Catalonia and the Basque Country with more than 600 and with more than 500, Aragón, Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Extremadura and Navarra.

With less incidence: Melilla (246); Castilla-La Mancha (274), Andalusia (291) and Madrid (297).

By age bracketsthe group between 12 and 19 years old has the highest incidence (742), followed by those between 20 and 29 years old (620).

Health has reported 18,803 infections since yesterday, the lowest daily figure in recent weeks.

Since the start of the pandemic in Spain there are already 11,054,888 coronavirus infections on record.

The positivity rate of diagnostic tests it continues to fall to 17.06%, a few tenths less than yesterday.

Despite the decline in all indicators, the death toll remains high and, since records have been available since the start of the pandemic, 100,037 have been reached this Wednesday, after the 154 most reported since yesterday.

The ucis they are at 9.8% bed occupancy with 902 patients, although they are still at high risk (between 10% and 5%).

In Spanish hospitals, on the ward and ICU, there are 6,188 covid patients (4.9% occupancy) and in a low risk situation (from 5% to 2% of occupied beds).

Vaccines

In total there are 39,062,167 citizens91% of the population over 12 years of age, with the full course of the covid vaccine.

In addition, 24.1 million people have already received the booster dose, 50.9% of the general population.

57.5% of children between 5 and 11 years old (1.8 million out of 3.2 million) have received at least one dose and 19% already have the complete schedule since the campaign started on December 15 pediatric vaccination.

Spain offers 5,000 hospital beds to Ukraine

Spain has offered Ukraine, in the midst of the war over the invasion of Russia, 5,000 hospital beds in all the autonomous communities and medical supplies, medicines and respirators in coordination with the European Union.

The Spanish contribution exceeds that of the surrounding European countries in a gesture of “solidarity” with Ukraine in “times of difficulty and unity”, announced the Minister of Health.

Biden Rallies Support for Ukraine in State of the Union Address

In his first State of the Union address, U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday night condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and rallied bipartisan support for the country. VOA’s White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.

President Biden Delivers State of the Union Address

Biden’s first State of the Union address included tough words for autocratic adversaries and a hopeful message for US citizens battered by a pandemic, rising prices, and bitter political divides

Biden's Claims in His State of Union Address

The Associated Press is fact-checking President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union speech as he grapples with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a stalled domestic agenda and the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the claims we’ve examined:

The pandemic

BIDEN: “Severe cases are down to a level not seen since July of last year.”

THE FACTS: Biden overstated the improvement, omitting a statistic that remains a worrisome marker of the toll from COVID-19.

While hospitalizations indeed are down from last summer, deaths remain high. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID tracker shows 289 deaths on July 1, 2021. This past Monday, the CDC tracker reported 1,985 deaths.

Ohio factories

BIDEN, on Intel’s plans for new factories in central Ohio: “Up to eight state-of-the-art factories in one place. 10,000 new jobs.”

THE FACTS: His statement is premature. That many factories are not imminent and may or may not ever be built.

Earlier this year, Intel announced it would open two factories expected to employ 3,000 people. The other 7,000 positions the project is slated to create are temporary construction jobs. It is also planning a chip foundry business that makes chips designed by other firms. Construction is expected to start this year.

Intel has raised the possibility of constructing up to six more factories over the next decade, which could bring the total number of factory workers to 10,000. But that is only a prospect, years away.

Inflation

BIDEN: “The pandemic also disrupted the global supply chain. … Look at cars last year. One-third of all the inflation was because of automobile sales. There weren’t enough semiconductors to make all the cars that people wanted to buy. And guess what? Prices of automobiles went way up. … And so we have a choice. One way to fight inflation is to drag down wages and make Americans poorer. I think I have a better idea to fight inflation. Lower your costs and not your wages. Folks, that means make more cars and semiconductors in America. More infrastructure and innovation in America. More goods moving faster and cheaper in America. … Instead of relying on foreign supply chains let’s make it in America.”

THE FACTS: It’s dubious to suggest that more domestic manufacturing means less inflation.

Manufactured products made overseas, particularly in countries such as China or Mexico where wages are lower, are generally cheaper than U.S.-made goods.

Biden also places too much weight on supply chain disruptions from overseas as a factor in the worst inflation in four decades. Although those problems indeed have been a major factor in driving up costs, inflation is increasingly showing up in other areas, such as rents and restaurant meals, that reflect the rapid growth of the economy and wages in the past year and not a global supply bottleneck. Those trends are likely to keep pushing up prices even as supply chains recover.

Gun violence

BIDEN, asking Congress to pass measures he said would reduce gun violence: “Repeal the liability shield that makes gun manufacturers the only industry in America that can’t be sued, the only one.”

THE FACTS: That’s false. While gun manufacturers do have legal protections from being held liable for injuries caused by criminal misuse of their weapons thanks to the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, they are not exempt or immune from being sued. The law includes six exceptions where manufacturers or dealers can be held liable for damages that their weapons cause, including defects or damages in the design of the gun, negligence, or breach of contract or warranty regarding the purchase of a gun.

Families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, sued gunmaker Remington, alleging “wrongful marketing” of firearms, and last month agreed to a $73 million settlement.

Infrastructure law, part one

BIDEN on the infrastructure bill: “The single biggest investment in history was a bipartisan effort.”

THE FACTS: No, it wasn’t that historic.

Biden’s infrastructure bill was big, adding $550 billion in fresh spending on roads, bridges, and broadband internet over five years. But measured as a proportion of the U.S. economy, it is slightly below the 1.36% of the nation’s gross domestic product that was spent on infrastructure, on average, during the first four years of the New Deal, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution. It is even further below the roughly 2% spent on infrastructure in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Infrastructure law, part two

BIDEN, promoting his $1 trillion infrastructure law: “We’re done talking about infrastructure weeks. We’re now talking about an infrastructure decade. … We’ll build a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.”

THE FACTS: Not so fast.

The bipartisan legislation approved by Congress ended up providing just half of the $15 billion that Biden had envisioned to fulfill a campaign promise of 500,000 charging stations by 2030.

Biden’s Build Back Better proposal aimed to fill the gap by adding back billions to pay for charging stations. But Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in December declared that bill dead in its present form because of the cost.

Administration officials now say the infrastructure law will help pave the way for up to 500,000 charging outlets by 2030. That’s different than charging stations, which could have several outlets. They say private investments could help fill the gap. Currently there are more than 100,000 EV outlets in the U.S.

The Transportation Department’s plan asks states to build a nationwide network of EV charging stations that would place new or upgraded ones every 50 miles along interstate highways. The $5 billion in federal money over five years relies on cooperation from sprawling rural communities in the U.S., which are less likely to own EVs because of their typically higher price.

States are expected to start construction as early as fall.

Republican response

IOWA GOV. KIM REYNOLDS, criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of immigration and boasting about Republican governors’ attention to the issue: “We’ve actually gone to the border — something that our president and vice president have yet to do since taking office.”

THE FACTS: Not true. Vice President Kamala Harris visited the border last year. Biden hasn’t gone yet.

Harris toured a Customs and Border Protection processing center in El Paso, Texas, and met migrant children there. She also stopped by an intake center on the border and held a discussion with local community organizations.

The half-day trip in June came after months of criticism from Republicans and some in her own party over her absence and that of Biden from the border at a time when immigration officers have logged record numbers of encounters with migrants attempting to cross into the U.S.

Ukraine, Pandemic, Economy, Political Divisions, to Dominate Biden’s 1st State of the Union Address

WHITE HOUSE — 

Escalating conflict in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic and — as always — the economy, are likely to dominate President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

The constitutionally mandated address is the rhetorical highlight of the year for the U.S. president. Joe Biden is no exception, but this year’s State of the Union — his first, although he has previously addressed a joint session of Congress — comes at an especially fraught time.

As if to underscore that, Capitol police said Sunday that they were taking extra precautions at the site of the speech.

A barrier is placed behind a security fence in preparation for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 27, 2022.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and in conjunction with the United States Secret Service, a plan has been approved to put up the inner perimeter fence around the Capitol building for the State of the Union Address,” said United States Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger. “I have also requested support from outside law enforcement agencies as well as the National Guard to assist with our security precautions.”

Ukraine crisis

The White House says Biden is likely, during the Tuesday night speech, to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, his wider view of the world. But press secretary Jen Psaki stressed that the situation is rapidly changing — and the president’s words may evolve before he speaks in front of legislators.

FILE – White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Dec. 22, 2021, in Washington.

“We are in the middle of an active invasion,” she said Friday. “So I just can’t give you a preview of what that will look like in the State of the Union. As it relates to how the president views his approach to foreign policy — you know, the president ran for president wanting to return America’s seat at the world, wanting to return to a time where other leaders around the world could trust the word and the commitments of the United States, and what you have seen over the last few months, is the president deliver on exactly that.”

In the past week, Biden has delivered three speeches on the escalating crisis in Ukraine; but, in his deeply politically divided nation, analysts say Biden should expect a frosty reception when talking about what he describes as the greatest threat to global security since World War II.

FILE – People coming from Ukraine descend from a ferry boat to enter Romania after crossing the Danube river at the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing between Romania and Ukraine on Feb. 26, 2022.

“The country generally rallies behind a president when we face an international crisis,’ said Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. “If you watch [Fox News TV host] Tucker Carlson, or listen to Donald Trump, or know what many Republicans in Congress have been saying, we’re not going to get that rallying around the president by a significant share of the population. The tribal divisions are there now, for even things that affect American national security.”

Recent public opinion polls indicate the president’s approval rating has dipped since the early days of his administration, when the Gallup survey reported 57% of Americans said they approved of the job he was doing. The same group’s poll conducted in the first half of February reported Biden now has a 41% job approval rating.

FILE – President Donald Trump gestures while speaking as Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during their joint news conference at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018.

Trump, the former president, has been outspoken in his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his animus toward Biden. On Monday, Trump criticized Biden’s energy policy and said, “This war should never have started in the first place.”

Trump continues to maintain, in the face of overwhelming evidence otherwise, that the November 2020 election was rigged, and said that under his leadership, the U.S. “would right now continue to have record-low gas prices, as it was under my administration, and we would be supplying the world with oil and gas.”

It’s the economy, always

Presidents typically use this speech to sell Congress on their domestic agenda and bills they want to pass. And there is one topic every president is expected to cover in the State of the Union address, says Jeremi Suri, a historian at the University of Texas at Austin.

“He will argue that the economy is growing, that unemployment is low, and that we are going in the right direction and that inflation has to do with supply difficulties and pandemic difficulties, which he is working diligently to solve, and which will be resolved soon,” he said. “And every president comments on the economy because they all want to say the state of the economy is such that we are getting richer, we are doing better than ever before. The only exceptions when presidents don’t talk about the economy are when we are at war ourselves.”

One thing that is certain: America, and the world, will be listening to what he has to say. The address begins at 9 p.m. Washington time, on Tuesday.

Ukraine, Pandemic, Economy Likely to Lead Biden’s First State of the Union Address

President Biden to use annual address to push agenda, and to discuss current hot topics including Ukraine, pandemic and economy. VOA’s Anita Powell has a preview.