Biden is sending 500m free COVID tests to homes - two weeks after Psaki laughed at the idea: President will deploy 1k troops to hospitals, ramp up testing sites but tell vaccinated Americans they DON'T need to cancel Christmas in Omicron game plan
President Joe Biden will mail 500 million rapid COVID tests to homes across America, deploy 1,000 medical personnel to hospitals and set up new federal testing sites as part of the Omicron battle plan he will announce in full on Tuesday afternoon.
He will also issue a stark warning to the 40 million unvaccinated Americans and assure the rest of the country they won't have to cancel their Christmas plans, despite a surge in cases across the country.
The administration is not calling for any new lockdowns or travel restrictions and will instead address existing steps like masking indoors, testing, and vaccines. The White House will also set up a website where Americans can order free at-home virus tests just two weeks after Press Secretary Jen Psaki rejected the idea and sarcastically said: 'Should we just send one [test] to every American?'
Biden will tell the nation 'we know we have the tools to get through this wave,' according to a senior administration official who briefed the media on the effort – including the new testing component.
He will speak less than 24 hours after America recorded its first Omicron-related death - a Texas man in his 50s who was unvaccinated and had already been infected before - and with lines building at testing centers across the country.
The news of the first fatality caused by the new variant was announced by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Monday night, around the same time the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that Omicron is now the dominant COVID strain in the US, accounting for 73 per cent of all new cases.
Hidalgo did not name the victim, who had undisclosed underlying health conditions, and who was treated with Regeneron antibody therapy in an unsuccessful attempt to save his life.
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Tuesday morning said the spread of Omicron is 'unprecedented' and cases will 'double' every two days, but insisted vaccinated Americans can enjoy Christmas with their families.
States like New York and New Jersey in particular are getting slammed by the new variant. New York City has recorded record infections in 24 hours over the past week and Hawaii is currently the U.S. leader in growth of cases, up 383 per cent over the last two weeks.
Hospitalizations have not kept pace, though, only growing six per cent during that time span, a sign that the 63 per cent of the population that is vaccinated has some protection from the virus.
'The President will tell the American people that if they are vaccinated and follow the process that we all know well, especially masking while traveling, they should feel comfortable celebrating Christmas and the holidays,' said the White House official.
As part of his plans, Biden will:
- Direct Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to mobilize an additional 1,000 troops to deploy to Covid-hit hospitals during January and February.
- Deploy six emergency response teams with more than 100 clinical personnel and paramedics to Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire and Vermont immediately.
- Set up a new federal testing sites around the country with the first coming to New York City this week.
- Purchase a half-billion free at-home rapid tests to send to American homes from January
- Americans will be able to order the rapid, at-home tests from a website at the beginning of 2022
- FEMA is pre-deploying hospital equipment to prepare for an expected surge, with 'hundreds of millions of high-quality masks' and other equipment
- More medical surge facilities like two new ones in Louisiana; - The government is deploying hundreds of ambulance and EMS crews to transport people out of overwhelmed hospitals.
President Joe Biden will mail 500 million rapid COVID tests to homes across America, deploy 1,000 medical personnel to hospitals and set up new federal testing sites as part of his Omicron battle plan he will announce in full on Tuesday afternoon. He will also issue a stark warning to the 40 million unvaccinated Americans and assure the rest of the country they won't have to cancel their Christmas plans, despite a surge in cases across the country
On Tuesday morning, Donald Trump sent out a statement attacking Biden's COVID response that said: 'Joe Biden was supposedly “elected” because he was going to quickly get rid of COVID-19, sometimes referred to as the China Virus. How’s that working out?'
Republicans have also accused the White House of talking down to Americans and criticized pandemic policies. Senator Roger Marshall, who is also a physician, told DailyMail.com on Tuesday: 'Unfortunately, the White House message is talking down to the American people – the first thing we learned in medical school is that you don’t talk down to patients. Instead, Joe Biden should be focused on getting booster shots in the arms of seniors and those at high risk – we know that they work and that they will save lives.'
Biden will keep up the tough talk he rolled out last week, when he warned the unvaccinated they faced potential illness and death and urged Americans to get their booster shots.
'We will also note that if you are unvaccinated you are at high risk of getting this variant. This variant is highly transmissible and the unvaccinated are eight times more likely to be hospitalized and 14 times more likely to die from covid,' said the official previewing the speech.
With 40 million Americans still unvaccinated, and the highly-transmissible Omicron variant on the rise, 'We are prepared for cases arise,' said the official.
The White House has placed heavy blame on the unvaccinated and have referred to persistent COVID problems as the 'pandemic of the unvaccinated'.
Kamala Harris did break with Biden in an interview with CBS News on Monday night and refused to blame those who haven't got a shot.
'I don't think this is a moment to talk about fault,' Harris said during an interview with CBS when pressed on the matter. 'It is no one's fault that this virus hit our shores or hit the world. … It is more about individual power and responsibility and the decisions that everyone has the choice to make.'
Fauci also told Good Morning America on Tuesday morning that families where everyone is vaccinated 'should have an enjoyable Christmas'.
'What you want to stay away from is indoor congregant sittings in which you do not know the vaccination status of the people around you. That would be quite risky,' he added.
Having the feds provide tests directly to Americans is a reversal from prior policies of letting Americans get them locally and pick up the tab through reimbursements, even as some European countries took the step of providing tests to the public.
The feds plan to purchase half a billion home rapid tests, which will be 'distributed for free to Americans that want them,' said the official. They will be offered through a web site, which isn't up yet, with the products not being available until January.
Omicron has raced ahead of other variants and is now the dominant version of the coronavirus in the U.S., accounting for 73% of new infections last week, federal health officials said Monday
The Omicron variant is responsible for an estimated 90% of new infections in the New York area, the Southeast, the industrial Midwest and the Pacific Northwest
The Omicron variant (purple) is now the dominant Covid strain in the U.S., making up 73% of cases last week. It overtakes the Delta variant (orange) which had been dominant since July
The administration is announcing it is purchasing 500 million home tests that will be sent to Americans who request them. The first will be set up in New York where huge lines have been forming at testing centers
But the pace is uncertain. The 'initial delivery' is set for next month. The official said the tests would be available 'this winter.' The announcement comes with many local pharmacies sold out of popular home tests, even as more schools and events start relying on tests to screen out people who have been exposed to covid-19.
Biden is also taking other steps to prepare for a spike in cases – some of which recall the dark period of early 2020 when hospitals were overwhelmed.
The administration is still working on such details as how many free tests Americans could get on the site. It goes in concert with another program that could be more cumbersome, allowing people to claim reimbursement for tests through insurance.
The administration is not calling for any new lockdowns, instead addressing existing steps like masking indoors, testing, and vaccines.
'There is no need to lock down our schools and our economy and you’ll hear that from the president tomorrow,' said the official.
The Delta strain now accounts for an average of just 26 per cent of new infections, after raging across the US all summer. As of Monday night, Johns Hopkins figures showed the US has recorded close to 51.1 million COVID infections, and nearly 808,000 deaths.
And across much of the country, Omicron's prevalence is even higher than the 73 per cent average, the CDC warned.
It is responsible for an estimated 90 per cent of new infections in the New York area, the Southeast, the industrial Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.
Since the end of June, the Delta variant has been the main version causing U.S. infections.
As recently as the end of November, more than 99.5 per cent of coronaviruses were Delta, according to CDC data.
Scientists in Africa first sounded the alarm about Omicron less than a month ago and on November 26 the World Health Organization designated it as a 'variant of concern.' The mutant has since shown up in about 90 countries.
CDC's estimates are based on thousands of coronavirus specimens collected each week through university and commercial laboratories and state and local health departments.
Scientists analyze their genetic sequences to determine which versions of the COVID-19 viruses are most abundant.
In the week that ended December 11, Omicron's share of new infections in the U.S. increased to 2.9 per cent from 0.4 per cent the week before, the CDC previously reported.
But CDC on Tuesday said they are revising some of the earlier numbers, after analyzing more specimens.
The new numbers indicate that about 13 per cent of the infections the week of December 11 were Omicron, and not 3 per cent, CDC officials said.
Florida, with a 226 per cent increase in cases over the past two weeks, and Connecticut, with a 137 per cent increase, have also seen cases more than double over the past two weeks, with the latter also suffering a 69 per cent increase in hospitalizations in that time - despite 74 per cent of the population being fully vaccinated.
New York and New Jersey are the states believed to have the largest prevalence of the new variant, and both are experiencing an increase in cases as well.
The country as a whole is not suffering a COVID surge, though, with the virus even starting to recede in some areas.
States in both the Northeast and Great Plains - both regions that experienced a sharp increase in COVID cases in early fall - are now seeing those surges decline.
In Montana, for example, cases have dropped 53 per cent over the past two weeks, with hospitalizations down 27 per cent.
Neighboring Wyoming has experienced a 40 per cent drop in cases, with hospitalizations down 11 per cent.
North Dakota, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota also have case numbers trending in the right direction.
New York is once again America's COVID epicenter, with Omicron estimated to be causing 90 per cent of its new COVID diagnoses
Neighboring New Jersey has also seen COVID cases rocket, with Omicron estimated to be causing nine tenths of new infections in the Garden State too
New Yorkers wait in line for a COVID test in Times Square on Monday night
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