The US may soon face trucker protests of their own; plus, new COVID guidelines as omicron wanes

AP, CNN

Here’s your latest COVID news for Feb. 23, 2022.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Wednesday he is removing emergency powers police can use after authorities ended the truck blockades at the borders and the occupation in Ottawa by those opposed to COVID-19 restrictions.

Trudeau said the “threat continues” but the acute emergency that included entrenched occupations has ended. His government invoked the powers last week and lawmakers affirmed the powers late Monday.

Speaking of trucker protests, the Pentagon has approved the deployment of 700 unarmed National Guard troops to the nation’s capital as it prepares for trucker convoys that are planning protests against pandemic restrictions beginning next week.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the request Tuesday from the District of Columbia government and the U.S. Capitol Police, the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday night.

The troops would be used to assist with traffic control during demonstrations expected in the city in the coming days, the Pentagon said. Four hundred Guard members from the District of Columbia Guard will be joined by 300 Guard members from other states, according to the statement.

The vaccination drive in the U.S. is grinding to a halt, and demand has all but collapsed in places like the deeply conservative manufacturing town of Hamilton, Alabama where many weren’t interested in the shots to begin with.

The average number of Americans getting their first shot is down to about 90,000 a day, the lowest point since the first few days of the U.S. vaccination campaign, in December 2020. And hopes of any substantial improvement in the immediate future have largely evaporated.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will announce new metrics to guide Covid-19 restrictions such as mask-wearing as early as Friday or possibly in the early part of next week, according to a CDC scientist directly involved with the process.

The CDC currently says that people who live in counties with substantial or high levels of Covid-19 transmission should wear masks indoors. The agency will not be changing that guidance but will be changing the way it assesses “community levels of disease,” by shifting from looking at cases alone to looking at “meaningful consequences” of the virus such as hospitalizations, emergency room visits and deaths.

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