As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 865,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.3% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 60 people have been arrested in Brussels after demonstrations protesting COVID-19 mandates turned violent, Belgian Federal Police told ABC News.
The protests were in response to an announcement made by Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo Friday that people would need booster shots after five months after their second shot to maintain COVID-19 passes giving access to bars or cinemas.
The five-month limit is among the strictest COVID-19 mandates in Europe. The European-wide guide for travel is nine months, and France’s mandate is six months.
Three police officers and 12 demonstrators were injured amid the chaos. Officers used water cannons and tear gas on demonstrators, police said.
The protests remained mostly peaceful until about 2 p.m. local time, when a group of people started clashing with the police near the European Union Parliament in the Schuman neighborhood. Windows of some EU buildings were smashed, and some vehicles were damaged, police said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
New Zealand announced a new set of COVID-19 restrictions Sunday amid its first omicron outbreak.
The country, which had so far remained one of the few countries in the world without a surge of cases of the new variant, will impose new restrictions under the "Red" traffic light system starting at 11:59 PM local time on Sunday.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reported in a press conference Sunday the variant is circulating in Auckland.
There are nine newly confirmed omicron cases identified in a single family in the last day. The family had just returned from attending a wedding and other events where there were more than 100 people, officials said.
And due to the outbreak, Ardern announced that she and her partner are postponing their wedding.
-ABC News' Christine Theodorou
The Food and Drug Administration has expanded its approval for remdesivir, an antiviral drug used to treat COVID-19, to include people who are not hospitalized. Previously, the approval was limited to patients who were already hospitalized.
The expanded use was based on a study that found high-risk COVID-19 patients who were treated with remdesivir were less likely to be hospitalized than patients who got a placebo.
"Today's actions provide adults and pediatric patients, with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of severe COVID-19, with a treatment option they could receive outside of a traditional inpatient hospital setting, including at skilled nursing facilities, home healthcare settings and outpatient facilities such as infusion centers," Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement Friday.
The intravenous drug, known by the brand name Veklury, is approved for use in patients as young as 12 years old who weigh at least 88 pounds.
-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik
A federal judge in Texas shot down the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal workers.
A lawsuit was filed in December by Feds for Medical Freedom, compromised of government employees from various agencies and AFGE 918, a union which primarily represents employees from the Federal Protective Service and Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency.
Citing the Supreme Court’s most recent decision against OSHA, U.S. District Judge Jeffery Vincent Brown ruled there is a difference between public health measures and setting workplace and safety standards.
“The President certainly possesses ‘broad statutory authority to regulate executive branch employment policies,’” the judge wrote. “But the Supreme Court has expressly held that a COVID-19 vaccine mandate is not an employment regulation. And that means the President was without statutory authority to issue the federal worker mandate.”
Brown made clear that getting vaccinated is the best protection against COVID-19 and the lawsuit had to do with whether or not a president could issue such a sweeping order with the stroke of a pen.
The Justice Department will appeal the ruling, a spokesman said.
Following the ruling, a Biden administration spokesperson said "we are confident in our legal authority."
"Importantly, as we face the most transmissible variant to date, every leader should be focused on using the tools we know work to protect the American people. Vaccination is our strongest tool against the virus," the spokesperson said in a statement, noting that more than 93% of federal employees have gotten at least one vaccine dose.
-ABC News' Luke Barr
A Minnesota man severely ill with COVID-19 was transferred to a Texas hospital over the weekend, after his wife was granted a temporary restraining order against the Minnesota hospital where doctors informed her they would take him off a ventilator.
Scott Quiner, 55, of Buffalo, Minnesota, tested positive for COVID-19 in late October and was initially admitted to Waconia Hospital before being transferred to the intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids on Nov. 6, according to a GoFundMe page in support of the Quiner family and an article by the StarTribune, which was first to report the story.
A court order, issued last Thursday and obtained by ABC News, prohibited Mercy Hospital from disconnecting the ventilator that had been supporting Scott Quiner for months while his wife, Anne Quiner, searched for a new facility to continue his care. An Anoka County judge granted the order after health care providers advised Anne Quiner that they "intend[ed] to take actions on Thursday, January 13, 2022, that [would] end [her] husband’s life."
According to court documents, Anne Quiner told doctors that, as her husband’s health care proxy, she "vehemently disagree[d]" with these actions, and did not want her husband’s ventilator turned off.
Over the weekend, Scott Quiner was subsequently moved to a facility in Texas for treatment, according to the Quiner family's attorney, Marjorie J. Holsten.
"A doctor evaluated him and determined that he was severely undernourished. Scott has been receiving much-needed nourishment and hydration and medications that were not given by Mercy," Holsten told ABC News in a statement Monday. "He is being weaned off of the sedating drugs and has already been able to follow with his eyes movements the doctor made with his hands. He is making progress in the right direction, though he has a long road ahead of him and continued prayers are appreciated."
Representatives for Allina Health, which operates Mercy Hospital, said they wish the patient and his family well and have "great confidence" in their team's work.
“Allina Health has great confidence in the exceptional care provided to our patients, which is administered according to evidence-based practices by our talented and compassionate medical teams. Due to patient privacy, we cannot comment on care provided to specific patients,” the health system told ABC News in a statement Monday. "Allina Health continues to wish the patient and family well. Any information regarding the patient’s on-going care should be directed to his current medical provider."
-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos
