(AP) — Pan­demics do even­tu­al­ly end, even if omi­cron is com­pli­cat­ing the ques­tion of when this one will. But it won’t be like flip­ping a light switch: The world will have to learn to co­ex­ist with a virus that’s not go­ing away.

For­mer Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try and for­mer Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance, Mar­i­ano Browne, warns that low gas pro­duc­tion com­bined with ma­jor de­clines in prices and a chang­ing en­er­gy en­vi­ron­ment are prov­ing to be and will con­tin­ue to be a ma­jor chal­lenge in any re­cov­ery in the en­er­gy sec­tor.

The pub­lic is be­ing asked to reach out and as­sist health care work­ers bat­tling the COVID-19 virus.  The call comes from Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la, Dr Rai Rag­bir MP.

The Coun­try Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (PA­HO) and the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO), Dr Er­i­ca Wheel­er, is ap­plaud­ing the de­vel­op­ment of the COVID-19 vac­cines.

A 57-year-old woman with co­mor­bidi­ties is the lat­est COVID-19 vic­tim in To­ba­go, ac­cord­ing to the up­date for Thurs­day 30 De­cem­ber 2021, re­leased by the Di­vi­sion of Health, Well­ness and So­cial Pro­tec­tion, in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA).

● Some of the most icon­ic cel­e­bra­tions will be go­ing ahead as coun­tries hit new record lev­els of in­fec­tions ●

● The Omi­cron vari­ant’s ad­vance ex­pect­ed due to its con­ta­gious na­ture and has be­come dom­i­nant in France, Por­tu­gal and UK ●

SEAT­TLE (AP) — The omi­cron-fu­elled surge that is send­ing COVID-19 cas­es rock­et­ing in the U.S. is putting chil­dren in the hos­pi­tal in close to record num­bers, and ex­perts lament that most of the young­sters are not vac­ci­nat­ed.

● The re­gion re­ports the biggest rise in cas­es world­wide with the hol­i­day pe­ri­od set to dri­ve up num­bers, PA­HO warns, urg­ing coun­tries to con­tin­ue vac­ci­na­tion cam­paigns and im­ple­men­ta­tion of pub­lic health mea­sures ●

The lead­ers of Chris­t­ian Church­es in this coun­try have is­sued a joint state­ment in which they call on their con­gre­ga­tions “to make an in­formed moral choice that serves the com­mon good” and “to se­ri­ous­ly con­sid­er tak­ing the vac­cine and the boost­er.”

Two women and one man are among To­ba­go’s lat­est COVID-19 fa­tal­i­ties, record­ed on Wednes­day 29 De­cem­ber 2021, in the lat­est up­date from the Di­vi­sion of Health, Well­ness and So­cial Pro­tec­tion, in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA).

■ More coun­tries see coro­n­avirus cas­es surge to high­est lev­els ever amid the rapid spread of Omi­cron vari­ant ■