WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden urged concern, but not alarm, as the United States set records for daily reported COVID-19 cases and his administration blamed a lack of testing, school closures and the number of deaths caused by the Omicron version. Others struggled to reduce concerns about disruptions.
In remarks Tuesday ahead of a meeting with his COVID-19 response team at the White House, Biden aimed to convey his administration’s urgency in addressing Omicron and convince wary Americans that the current situation was at the beginning or past the pandemic. bears little resemblance to the deadly winter of the year. , The president stressed that vaccines, booster shots and therapeutic drugs have reduced the threat to the overwhelming majority of fully vaccinated Americans.
“You can still get COVID, but it’s highly unlikely, very unlikely, that you will become seriously ill,” Biden said of people vaccinated.
“There is no excuse, there is no excuse not to vaccinate anyone,” he said. “It remains an epidemic of the uneducated.” He also encouraged Americans, including newly eligible teens ages 12 to 15, to receive booster doses of vaccines for maximum protection.
Compared to last year, more Americans are employed, the majority of children are in classrooms, and deaths and cases of serious illness have decreased – amid rapid vaccinations.
When asked whether the country had lost control of the virus, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “We are in a very different place than we were a year ago.”
Still, Americans over the past several weeks have seen dire warnings about hospitals reaching capacity amid staff shortages, thousands of holiday flight cancellations in part because crews were sick or in quarantine, and more- Intermittent reports of school closures due to the infectious version.
On a conference call with governors, Biden’s top COVID-19 science adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Americans “should not be complacent” even though preliminary data shows the Omicron variant to cause less severe disease than earlier strains. But, he said, the number of people infected with Omicron “could outweigh the positive effects of low severity” and “severely strain our hospitals”.
While most schools across the country remain open, Biden took aim at those who had closed, saying he believed they had money for testing and other safety measures. “I believe that schools should remain open,” he said.
The president also announced that the US is doubling its order for an anti-viral pill manufactured by Pfizer that was recently authorized by the FDA to prevent serious illness and death from COVID-19. That means 20 million doses, with the first 10 million pills being delivered by June.
A senior administration official said that combined with other treatments such as monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma, 4 million treatments that are effective against the Omicron variant will be available by the end of January.
The pills are “a game changer and have the potential to dramatically change the impact COVID-19 has on this country and our people,” Biden said.
Biden is under pressure to reduce the nationwide shortage of tests that people are using to determine whether they or their family members are infected. Long lines and chaotic scenes at the holidays tarnished the administration’s image as the pandemic in hand.
“Upon testing, I know it is disappointing. Trust me it’s disappointing for me, but we are improving,” Biden said.
In a reversal, the White House announced last month that it would make 500 million rapid antigen tests available free of charge to solicit Americans, but it would take weeks, if not months, for those tests to become widely available. The administration notes that those tests are on top of the current supply of rapid tests and that even a small increase would help alleviate some of the shortfalls. Additionally, private insurers will be required to cover the cost of home tests starting later this month.
Saki said test manufacturers have until Tuesday night to respond to the government’s contract request, and the first prize is expected to be awarded this week. The administration is still developing a system for ordering tests for Americans as well as sending them to people’s homes.
Under pressure on when the first tests would reach the Americans, Psaki said, “I don’t have any updates on that at this time.”
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