The coronavirus pandemic is entering its third year… with a death toll topping five-point-seven million people worldwide.

The Omicron variant continues to surge in many regions, and now there are fears of yet another deadly strain. But nations are learning to live with the virus as governments lift restrictions, open borders and ramp up vaccination efforts. The World Health Organization’s spokesperson Margaret Harris talks about these issue.

Then, one of the biggest global stories playing out right now is the protest by Canadian truckers against vaccine mandates for cross-border travel. Over the past two weeks, the “Freedom Convoy” — as it’s called — has snarled traffic in several Canadian cities. On Tuesday, protesters used their big rigs to block travel across the Ambassador Bridge -effectively shutting down one of the busiest international border crossings in North America.

CGTN’s Dan Williams reports the latest from Ottawa.

Joining the discussion:

• Andrew Cohen is a Journalist and Associate Professor of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University.
• Dr. Monica Gandhi is a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
• Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly is the Director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center and the Chief of Research and Education Service at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.

Mask mandates continue to fall as Fauci says U.S. may be approaching “normality” https://t.co/q3fNj08YP3

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 10, 2022

The anti-vax mandate protests that paralyzed Canada’s capital could be coming to major cities from California to Washington, D.C. https://t.co/LbneQDBKRS

— POLITICO (@politico) February 9, 2022

Global COVID-19 cases surpassed 400 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the highly contagious Omicron variant dominates the outbreak, pushing health systems in several countries to the brink of capacity. https://t.co/KsrB6AUbYf

— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 9, 2022