Hard Numbers: French teachers strike, Spanish doctors compensated, Lula soaring in Brazil, Biden pledges more COVID tests
75: Around 75 percent of French primary school teachers participated in a strike this week against the government’s handling of the pandemic. The teacher's union says that President Emmanuel Macron is putting educators at risk by constantly changing safety standards and protocols amid the ballooning omicron wave.
153: A group of 153 Spanish doctors won a lawsuit against the regional government in Valencia over inadequate PPE supply during the early days of the pandemic. A judge awarded compensation ranging from 5,000 to 49,000 euros ($5,732-56,177) per plaintiff because health workers were only given one face mask a week and expected to reuse gowns.
45: Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would win 45 percent of the vote if the October presidential election were held today. According to a new survey, the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro would only get 23 percent.
500 million: The Biden administration will purchase an additional 500 million COVID tests to be distributed for free to Americans. Half a billion tests had already been purchased, but they won’t reach US households until later this month, which critics say is too little, too late.