The World Health Organization (WHO) Tuesday opened the initial meeting of an international review panel established to evaluate the performance of its International Health Regulations (IHR) during the COVID-19 pandemic.The IHR were last revised in 2005 and grew out of the response to deadly epidemics that once overran Europe. They provide a framework by which nations can respond to an international health emergency, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and they define countries’ rights and obligations in handling emergencies that have the potential to cross borders.Former WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland told reporters in June that WHO should change the IHR guidelines that led it to oppose travel restrictions early in the outbreak, a step criticized later by the United States.Last month, current WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for the formation of the review panel that is made up of independent health experts from around the world.In his opening remarks to the panel, which is meeting virtually Tuesday and Wednesday, Tedros said he was sure they were aware of “the weight of this moment in history, and of the enormous expectations of your work.”He added that the panel was uniquely equipped to meet the moment.This is the fourth time such a review committee has been established to examine the response to an international health crisis. Such a panel met in 2010 to evaluate responses to the H1N1 Influenza outbreak, in 2014 to review deadlines for implementing international regulations, and in 2016 for the West Africa Ebola outbreak.The panel may present interim findings, if they choose, at the World Health Assembly in November and will present their final report at the May 2021 World Health Assembly. 
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Deirdre Carney suspected she might have COVID-19 when her temperature began to fluctuate above the normal 37 degrees Celsius.  “It was a bit of a shock when I was diagnosed. I could not believe that I had got it. I had not mixed with that many people,” Carney, an English teacher from California living in Madrid, told VOA. In the Spanish capital, which now has about a third of Spain’s coronavirus cases, authorities have been forced to impose several restrictions to try to halt the surge in infections. Since imposing one of the most draconian lockdowns in Europe, Spain became the first Western European country to report more than 500,000 cases, health authorities said Monday. With the number of infections reaching 525,000 Tuesday, Spain has 255.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 35.2 in Britain, 125.2 in France and 30.6 in Italy, once one of the worst-affected European countries at the start of the pandemic. Spanish Civil Guards on a checkpoint for all residents of the small village of Alfaro, La Rioja Province, northern Spain, which has been placed in lockdown due to a coronavirus outbreak, Sept. 8, 2020.Fighting the disease in isolation, Carney said she was not contacted by case tracers — a key deficiency that experts say is part of the reason for the surge in infections. “The only people who carried out the tracing was my employer,” she said. New restrictions Madrid, a city of 6.6 million people who often live in densely populated neigborhoods, will limit social gatherings to 10 people inside or outdoors.  Many outbreaks have been linked to family gatherings or when young people get together for outdoor drinking sessions, known as botellones. Bars, restaurants, weddings and funerals will also face curbs on capacity.  A new wave of contagion has been less deadly than at the start of the pandemic, and the number of infections seems to have slowed from the daily peak of over 10,000 more than a week ago. The death rate also remains well below the peak in April when over 900 people died in one day. Nevertheless, many are asking why Spain has once again become the “Sick man of Europe.”  FILE – People wearing face masks walk along a boulevard in Barcelona, Spain, Aug. 30, 2020.Experts suggest a complex mixture of factors have conspired to bring the country back almost to square one just as 8 million children return to school and Spaniards head back to work. “We had a very strict lockdown then relaxed this too quickly in a country with a high propensity to socialize and for family networks to stay very close,” Ildefonso Hernández, a professor of public health at the University Miguel Hernández near Alicante in southeast Spain, told VOA in an interview. “The picture is not homogeneous, but some regions also failed to employ enough case tracers when outbreaks started. It also has to be said that the number of tests being carried out has increased dramatically since March and April, so we are seeing more positive diagnoses,” he said.  Hernández also said part of the blame lay with regional authorities’ responses to migrant fruit pickers who travel around the country getting work where there are harvests. Many are forced to live in cramped conditions in which social distancing is difficult, if not impossible. “Some authorities, in Catalonia and Aragon, failed to provide adequate accommodation for these people,” Hernandez said. FILE – Francisco Espana, 60, faces the Mediterranean from a promenade next to a hospital in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020. He spent 52 days in intensive care at the hospital, but was allowed by his doctors to spend 10 minutes outdoors for recovery.Worrying situation In Madrid, the number of hospital beds occupied with COVID-19 cases is approximately 18%, compared with the national average of 7%. “The situation in Madrid is worrying. The number of COVID-19 cases is putting pressure on the ability of some hospitals to carry out other operations,” Hernández said. Analysts also point to weaknesses in Spain’s system of governance as a factor. Spain is one of the most decentralized states in Europe, with responsibility for health care and education farmed out to the 17 regional governments. “At the start of the pandemic, the central government took control over the management of the crisis from the regions. Apart from ideological differences with the central government, some regional pride was peaked,” Miguel Otero-Iglesias, an economist at the Elcano Royal Institute, a think tank in Madrid, told VOA. “At the same time, the regions look to the center for leadership. Spain does not have a fully centralized government, neither does it have a federal state.”  In order to improve infection tracing, Spain has called in the army, deploying 2,000 specialized soldiers to help regional authorities. Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa sought to calm fears. “The situation now is nothing like it was in March or April in terms of pressure on hospital beds or intensive care units,” he told reporters at a press conference. 
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Spain has become the first nation in Western Europe to exceed a half-million COVID-19 total infections, as the total number of cases around the world surged to 27.3 million, including 893,000 deaths.Data from Spain’s Health Ministry showed a total of 525,549 cases as of Tuesday, including 29,516 deaths.  In comparison, France has recorded 367,174 total infections and 30,732 deaths, while Britain has 352,451 total cases, including 41,643 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracking project.    Social culture
Spain imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns at the pandemic’s peak back in March, when the country’s hospitals were overwhelmed with new coronavirus patients and the number of fatalities exceeded more than 800 on a daily basis. The outbreak eventually was brought under control, but the number of new infections has steadily risen since the country began relaxing restrictions in July.  Some experts believe the rising COVID-19 infections are due to the country’s highly social culture, while others blame the recent surge on a lack of widespread contact tracing and a premature exit from lockdown.  FILE – Visitors wearing masks to avoid the spread of COVID-19 fill out a form which is mandatory to get into a hospital in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 26, 2020.South Korea
In South Korea, thousands of physician trainees returned to work Tuesday after a nearly three-week walkout that has complicated the nation’s efforts to contain a new wave in COVID-19 infections.The trainees went on strike on August 21 to protest the government’s medical reform scheme, which called for increasing the number of medical school students and opening new public medical schools.  The walkout caused delays at major hospitals where new and resident doctors play a crucial role in emergency rooms and intensive care units.  South Korea has posted daily new COVID-19 infections in the hundreds since mid-August, averaging well over 300 a day at one point, but have fallen below 200 for the sixth consecutive day Tuesday.People wearing face masks walk on Jinli Ancient Street, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, Sept. 8, 2020.In China, cause for celebration
Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping is praising the country’s response to the pandemic, which was first detected late last year in the central city of Wuhan.Speaking during a ceremony in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People Tuesday honoring four officials for their contributions during the outbreak, President Xi said China acted quickly to combat the virus in “an open, transparent, and responsible manner,” contradicting accusations by the United States and other Western nations that Beijing either downplayed or possibly covered-up the severity of the virus until it was too late and had spread beyond China’s borders.
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Ángela López hardly fits the profile of a rule-breaker. But the mother of a 7-year-old girl with respiratory problems has found herself among parents ready to challenge Spanish authorities on a blanket order to return to school.  
 
They are wary of safety measures they see as ill-funded as a new wave of coronavirus infections sweeps the country. They fear sick students could infect relatives who are at higher risk of falling ill from COVID-19. And they claim that they have invested in computers and better network connections to prepare for online lessons, even preparing to homeschool their children if necessary.
 
Many of the defiant parents, including López, are also ready to stand up to the country’s rigid, one-size-fits-all rule of mandatory in-school education, even if that means facing charges for truancy, which in Spain can be punished with three to six months in prison.  
 
Her daughter was born with a condition that makes her prone to suffer episodes of bronchial spasms, which can cause difficulty breathing. With COVID-19 affecting the respiratory system, López doesn’t want to take any risks.
 
“We feel helpless and a little offended. It’s like they force us to commit an illegal act because they don’t give us a choice,” said López, who lives in Madrid.
 
“It’s a matter of statistics,” she added. “The more cases there are, the more likely you are to catch it.”
 
More than half a million people have contracted the virus in Spain and at least 29,500 have died with it, although the official record leaves out many who perished in March and April without being previously tested.
 
With an average of 229 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks, Spain currently has the highest rate of contagion in western Europe. Within the region, it leads what many experts are already calling a second wave of the pandemic, although the Spanish government insists that it now identifies most of the infections because it’s testing more and better.
 
Officials also say that more than half of those infected now show no symptoms, which explains why hospitals that struggled at the peak of the epidemic in spring are seeing fewer COVID-19 patients this time.
 
As cases continue to go up and fuel debate in parents’ group messaging chats, Spanish authorities last week issued revised guidelines for the reopening. They included mandatory masks for students 6 and older, daily body temperature checks, hand-washing at least five times per day and frequent ventilation of classrooms.
 
The Ministry of Health has also recommended setting up so-called “bubble-classrooms” where a reduced number of students interact only among themselves, and “COVID coordinators” in every school who can react quickly if an outbreak is identified.  
 
But many parents say funding is insufficient to hire more teachers and that some schools just don’t have additional space. They also see an inconsistency in authorities allowing up to 25 children in classrooms while banning large meetings of people or imposing curbs on nightlife in response to surging contagion. In Madrid, those restrictions have been expanded even to private homes, where no gatherings of more than 10 relatives or friends are allowed.
 
Over 8 million students in Spain are beginning the academic year this week or next, with the starting date varying in each of its 17 regions and according to education levels.
 
Although scientists are still studying the role children play in spreading COVID-19, younger children appear less infectious than teenagers. Children mostly suffer only mild infections when they catch the virus, but in rare cases they can get severe illness and studies have shown they can transmit COVID-19 to others in their households, including their parents.
 
Aroha Romero, a mother of two from the eastern region of Valencia, said the lack of clarity increases her anxiety.
 
“I would rather be threatened (to be charged with absenteeism) than have my children be motherless due to the coronavirus,” she said
 
Lorenzo Cotino, a law professor at the University of Valencia who has studied the impact of legislation in education, noted that schooling is widely supported in Spain since a 1970 law made physical attendance mandatory, reducing social divisions.
 
The pandemic has reinforced the idea that “equality and schooling go hand in hand,” Cotino said, because “children in marginalized groups with less internet access received a poorer education at home.”
 
The families contesting the status quo say Spain’s constitution gives them freedom to keep their children away from school. But there is neither a legal umbrella for homeschooling, nor is there a system that sets standards for studying at home.
 
The situation is similar in Germany, where homeschooling is illegal, although there has been enthusiasm there about the return to schools, and in Britain, where very high attendance rates followed last week’s reopening. The British government has pledged to only fine parents not sending their children back as a “last resort.”
 
Even in European countries where homeschooling is allowed, the practice is not as widespread as in the United States. A longstanding distance learning system for all ages exists in France but parents can also choose to privately educate their children.
 
French education authorities say it’s too early in the academic year to identify if the coronavirus is driving a homeschooling trend.
 
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has warned of a “risk of social exclusion for not returning to school.” And although he said there is “no such thing as zero risk,” he said both students and teachers “will be much safer in educational centers than in other places.”
 
His education minister, Isabel Celaá, has acknowledged that a number of students will miss the return to school for medical reasons. But stressing the existing punishment for absenteeism, she said last week that in-school learning “cannot be replaced by homeschooling.”
 
Irene Briones, a law professor at Madrid’s Complutense University, said that “if truancy numbers increase massively, nothing will happen” because “it’s not in the government’s interest” to go against large numbers of parents.
 
When Spain went into a strict three-month lockdown last spring, millions of students were forced to finish school from home and parents suddenly became teachers. Online classes helped a great deal and set the path towards a new way of learning in COVID-19 times, families said.
 
The demand now is that online education becomes standardized with an official digital learning program that will help students keep up with the coursework at least through December, during the first trimester of the academic year. They also say that laptops and other equipment should be handed out to narrow the technology divide between families.
 
“We will defend ourselves using all legal tools and arguments” if authorities and families don’t reach an agreement, says Josu Gómez, whose Safe Return to School association has enlisted nearly 1,500 families in three weeks. A further 250,000 people have signed in two months a Change.org petition to demand safety measures for kids and teachers in classrooms.
 
But some are ready to face whatever consequences may come. Romero, the mother of two from Valencia, insisted her kids will stay home as long as infection numbers don’t go down.
 
“If adults can work from home, kids can study from home,” she said.
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Bright green stalks of weeds are sprouting from the ground where planes were supposed to take off at a new Mexico City airport as officials let nature take over in their bid to transform the marshy swath of an ancient lake into a giant park. The ghostly skeletons of a partly built control tower and flight terminal are recognizably in the style of Norman Foster, the British architect commissioned by Mexico’s last president to build a futuristic international airport at a cost of $13 billion on 4,800 hectares just east of the capital. Upon taking office in December 2018, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador axed the project, citing the results of an informal referendum, after arguing it would be costly to prevent sinking on the waterlogged soil. Instead of the slick design from Foster, whose award-winning glass and steel weblike buildings dot the globe, Lopez Obrador opted to expand an existing military airport. Workers prepare native plants at the garden center near the canceled airport zone as part of a project to conserve 12,200 hectares of land in Texcoco on the outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, Sept. 3, 2020.The abandoned construction zone is now part of a project to conserve 12,200 hectares of marsh on what was once massive Lake Texcoco before Spanish colonizers in the 1600s began draining the water to prevent flooding in their burgeoning settlement. About half that area is slated for public use, including sports and events space more than twice the size of New York’s Central Park. Architect Iñaki Echeverria, who is overseeing the project, aims to open a portion of the park by March next year and offer full access by 2024. “The restoration began the moment the construction stopped. This shows nature’s incredible resiliency,” he said. Officials point to recent flooding as proof that maintenance would have been difficult and say less than 20% of construction was completed. They paid about $603 million to cancel more than 600 contracts left in limbo. During a recent visit, a moat of green water had risen around a flying-saucer-like building where a control tower juts 20 meters high, less than a third of its intended height. Unfinished parts of the flight terminal at an abandoned construction site of a Mexico City airport are now flooded by summer rains, in Texcoco on the outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico, Sept. 4, 2020.Birds glided in a pond beneath columns of crisscrossing steel bars that were meant to become a terminal greeting 70 million passengers a year. The steel will be sold as scrap. Conservation efforts in the area date to the 1970s, when the government grappled with how to contain dust storms that swept from the dry lake basin over Mexico City. The current project has been hailed by Lopez Obrador as a “new Tenochtitlan,” referring to the centuries-old Aztec capital built in the middle of a sprawling lake, where Mexico City is today. Part of Echeverria’s work is convincing city dwellers that the wetlands are worth visiting. “People who think there’s nothing there, don’t know it well,” he said.   
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