Spanish PM calls for debate on treating COVID-19 as endemic

MADRID (AP) — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says it’s time to consider whether to move away from the detailed tracking that the pandemic has required until now to a flu-like monitoring system. The change would mean treating COVID-19 as an “endemic illness” rather than a pandemic, Sánchez said Monday, adding that deaths as a proportion of recorded cases have fallen dramatically since the initial onset of the pandemic. Under a new monitoring system, every new infection would not need to be recorded and people with symptoms wouldn’t necessarily be tested but they would continue to receive treatment.