Biden is slammed for waiting until TUESDAY to announce new COVID measures as Omicron cases double over 24 HOURS: White House scrambles after Harris admission they 'did not see variant coming'
President Joe Biden's decision to wait until Tuesday to address his plan to combat the rapidly spreading COVID Omicron variant has been met with incredulity as many criticized his apparent lack of urgency while he spends the weekend in Delaware.
It comes after Vice President Kamala Harris admitted on Friday that the administration was not prepared for the variant as cases doubled over the past 24 hours, with all but six states confirming cases, stoking fears of shutdowns similar to the ones in 2020.
Some have claimed that waiting till next week to outline a plan against Omicron is not a proactive move for a president who famously vowed to 'shut down the virus.'
Mark Knoller, a former CBS White House correspondent, tweeted, 'If the Pres has something urgent to say about Covid, why wait until Tuesday?'
Bob Wacheter, the chair of Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, also warned about the dangers of Omicron, specifically in New York City after a friend who had gotten three jabs went to a holiday party at the Big Apple last week.
'Today he tested pos. Feels flu-ish but luckily nothing worse. [Omicron's] a different foe – treat it w/ respect.'
Erin Sanders, a biologist who's worked on COVID research since the pandemic began, urged Biden and Harris to act quickly.
'#Omicron doubles in 2 days. Time is everything. @POTUS @ VP please we cannot wait. Do not sit in your ivory tower and watch the country burn,' Sanders tweeted.
Bree Newsome, a North Carolina community leader, said Biden needed to act quickly to curb the Omicron surge.
'Cases will have doubled by the time Biden makes his planned speech on COVID Tuesday. That’s how fast this thing is moving,' Newsome wrote on Twitter.
Alison Goldberg, a therapist and supporter of COVID protocols who's dealt with patients' anxiety and depression during the pandemic, also expressed her frustration with Biden's lack of urgency.
'Biden wants us to wait until Tuesday so he can tell us to get [vaccinated], that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and to ensure that no school closures unvaccinated kids who are exposed to covid can stay in class as long as they test. No urgency.'
The surge in the U.S. echoes what has already been seen across Europe as world leaders scramble to address Omicron.
The United Kingdom, which has also been ravaged by the variant, saw more than 10,000 new cases on Saturday, confirming nearly 25,000 cases of Omicron, which has been detected in 89 countries so far.
Dutch health experts are advising the Netherlands to impose a hard national lockdown before Christmas, and the country is expected to close all but essential stores from Sunday, sending panicked shoppers flocking to round up last-minute gifts before the restrictions descend.
President Joe Biden will spend the weekend in Delaware after attending the anniversary memorial of his first wife
Kamala Harris is seen on Friday speaking to The Los Angeles Times in her Washington DC office. She told the LA Times that the administration was not prepared for the new Omicron variant and suggested scientists were to blame
Some criticized Biden's decision to wait until Tuesday to unveil his Omicron plan as they warned that the variant was serious
When the pandemic first struck the U.S. in March 2020, many criticized then-President Donald Trump for failing to properly tackle COVID and saw Joe Biden as a more pragmatic leader for the issue.
Before his November 2020 victory, Biden famously tweeted, 'I'm not going to shut down the country. I'm not going to shut down the economy. I'm going to shut down the virus.' And this past Fourth of July, the president declared America's independence from the virus, arguing that vaccines had greatly reduced the threat of COVID.
A month later, the Delta variant ripped through the nation, bringing about record-breaking surges, and now that Omicron threatens to do the same, many are wondering why Biden is waiting until Tuesday to unveil his plan.
Press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that the president's upcoming plan would build off his 'Winter Plan,' which addresses booster shots, lockdowns and mask mandates.
'POTUS will announce new steps the Administration is taking to help communities in need of assistance, while also issuing a stark warning of what the winter will look like for Americans that choose to remain unvaccinated,' Psaki wrote on Saturday.
'We are prepared for the rising case levels, and [Biden] will detail how we will respond to this challenge. He will remind Americans that they can protect themselves from severe illness from COVID-19 by getting vaccinated and getting their booster shot when they are eligible.'
A week before winning the 2020 election, Biden promised to be the president to 'shut down the virus'
The Omicron surge comes as the White House has been scrambling to contain the fallout from Vice President Kamala Harris's statement on Friday in which she appeared to take a swipe at Biden for not anticipating the Delta and Omicron variants.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Friday, Harris appeared to blame scientists for the administration's failure to be better prepared for Omicron and Delta as the new strains threaten to send the country spiraling back to pandemic shutdowns.
'We have not been victorious over it,' Harris said.
'I don't think that in any regard anyone can claim victory when, you know, there are 800,000 people who are dead because of this virus.'
The vice president insisted that the virologists 'upon whose advice and direction we have relied' were blind to the next wave.
An administration official tried to put a positive spin on the vice president's remarks, insisting that she meant that the president and his aides did not foresee the mutations.
'The vice president’s comments referred to the exact kind of mutation,' said a statement by a Harris adviser obtained by Fox News on Saturday.
'The administration knew mutations were possible, it [is] the reason we ordered extra tests, extra gear and extra PPE [personal protective equipment].'
The adviser said that the administration kept promoting vaccinations, masking and social distancing in case new variants would appear.
'It is the reason the president, vice president and our entire administration warned early and often that the best way to get on the other side of the pandemic is to get vaccinated,' the aide said.
'We were and continue to be prepared.'
Also on Friday Harris appeared on Charlamagne Tha God's show on Comedy Central for an interview, which became uncomfortably heated after the radio host asked the vice president: 'So who's the real president of this country? Is it Joe Manchin or Joe Biden?'
The clarification comes just a day after Harris got into a heated exchange with Comedy Central host Charlamagne Tha God who pressed her on whether Biden or Senator Joe Manchin, the Democratic legislator who has stood in the way of the president's key agenda items, is 'the real president.'
Appearing on Comedy Central with Charlamagne - real name Lenard Larry McKelvey - Harris was asked why she and Biden were unable to pass their flagship $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation.
His question so angered Harris that her aide, Sanders, could be heard off-camera on the other end of the remote interview, shouting: 'I'm so sorry Charlamagne, it's Symone, we have to wrap.'
'She can hear me,' Charlamagne chuckles. Sanders responds: 'Can you hear me now? I'm sorry but we have to wrap. I'm sorry to interrupt.'
'They're acting like they can't hear me, yo,' Charlamagne says, turning to a producer off-camera, implying that Harris' team was faking technical issues.
Harris, looking tense, stared at Charlamagne and replied, 'I can hear you,' allowing the interviewer to finally continue with his question.
Symone Sanders (above) could be heard off-camera on the other end of the remote interview, shouting: 'I'm so sorry Charlamagne, it's Symone, we have to wrap'
'So who's the real president of this country? Is it Joe Manchin or Joe Biden?' Charlamagne asks.
'Come on, Charlamagne,' Harris says. 'Come on. It's Joe Biden.'
Charlamagne replies: 'I can't tell sometimes.'
Harris, growing visibly angry, wags her finger at the host and says: 'No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
'It's Joe Biden, and don't start talking like a Republican about asking whether or not he's president. And it's Joe Biden. And I'm vice president and my name is Kamala Harris.'
Sanders, the aide who attempted to cut off the interview, is the vice president's chief spokeswoman, who is one of at least four top aides to announce their departures from Harris' staff in recent weeks.
Claims of failings to properly address Omicron were not limited to the White House.
CNN anchor Brian Stelter siad that local leadership was also dropping the ball on Omicron as he tweeted NYC residents out and about in the city as though everything were normal.
'Delta? Omicron? Positive? Negative? Some scenes from a city that doesn't really know what to believe or what to do,' Stelter tweeted.
Saturday morning also brought 830 cases of the Omicron Covid-19 variant confirmed by DNA sequencing across the country, a 97 percent increase from Friday morning's tally.
In reality, the true number of Omicron cases is much higher, as only 1 to 2 percent of all cases are sequenced for variant markers, but the testing data shows a disturbing national trend.
The CDC estimates that Omicron accounts for at least 13 percent of all new cases in New York, which on Saturday recorded its highest single-day tally of new Covid-19 cases ever at 29,908 - breaking its previous record of 21,027 set just one day earlier.
'The winter Covid-19 surge is here,' warned New York Governor Kathy Hochul, urging everyone to get vaccinated and boosted.
Though New York's hospitalizations, which tend to lag new cases, remain below their peaks, they have climbed 25 percent in the past two weeks, straining the state's healthcare system.
A huge line formed at the Barclays Center Saturday as demand for Covid testing soars in New York City
Earlier this month Biden announced a Covid plan to battle the virus throughout the colder months, which included booster shots for all adults, vaccinations for kids in efforts to keep schools open and expanding free at-home Covid testing.
Health officials also met with Biden on Thursday to discuss Omicron, with some asking the president to shift the White Houses' message of 'freedom from the virus' to publicly discus how Americans can 'live alongside' COVID-19, CNN reported.
It's not clear if the meeting on Thursday was meant to inform what Biden will discuss come Tuesday.
The health officials were advising the White House to switch optics and focus on the nation's fight against severe COVID rather than everyday infection, which has been the norm for government agencies and the media since the pandemic began.
'We're getting to the point now where ... it's about severity,' Xavier Becerra, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, told reporters this week. 'It's not about cases. It's about severity. I think that's where we're heading...to try to be able to tell the public that.'
Testing has now confirmed the presence of Omicron in every US state except for Oklahoma, Montana, North and South Dakota, Indiana, and Vermont, though the eventual confirmation of the highly transmissible variant in every state now seems assured.
The spread of the variant, which appears highly transmissible and able to evade immune response from vaccination or prior infection, has already pushed Europe to the brink of new lockdowns.
As case numbers escalated, alarmed ministers in France, and Austria tightened travel restrictions. Paris cancelled its New Year's Eve fireworks.
Denmark closed theaters, concert halls, amusement parks and museums. Ireland imposed an 8pm curfew on pubs and bars and limited attendance at indoor and outdoor events.
However in New York, outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio remains intent on holding his New Year's Eve celebration at full capacity in Times Square. The party will mark the end of his eight-year reign, which expires on January 1.
De Blasio, like Governor Hochul, insisted on Friday that vaccination and precaution is the best way to combat the city's Covid surge.
'No, no, no,' de Blasio told WNYC on Friday when asked about possible shutdowns of public schools and other activities.
'Don't fight yesterday's war,' he added. 'This is not March of 2020. We're one of the most highly vaccinated places in the United States of America.'
'The more we vaccinate, the more we can get through this,' De Blasio said. Another lockdown 'would really destroy, in so many ways, people's livelihoods and it would, I think, after everything people have been through - it would be traumatizing.'
New York City's outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio remains intent on holding his New Year's Eve celebration at full capacity in Times Square, and vows not to follow Europe in a return to lockdowns
People line up to await the opening of a CityMD health clinic as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread in Manhattan, New York City on Saturday
Lines of people wait on Friday to get tested in New York's Times Square, where demand for the tests get bigger every day due to a sweeping Covid-19 surge that is battering the Northeast
Hospitalizations have been rising in New York City as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly
Meanwhile residents in The Big Apple are now struggling to even get a Covid test as the city suffers a surge of infections and each new positive test is kicking off frantic text messages to friends and colleagues warning them to get tested.
The looming Christmas holiday is prompting people to seek more tests than ever before prior to traveling to be reunited with family members across the country.
The spike in supply demand has stretched the city's testing capacity to the limit, with wait times of more than two hours on Saturday at some city testing centers and pharmacies in Manhattan running out of at-home test kits amid huge demand.
Furious New Yorkers are now questioning why De Blasio's administration was not prepared for the crisis, nearly a month after Hochul declared a state of emergency over the Omicron threat.
'New York City's test sites don't have enough capacity, staffing or supervision,' tweeted New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay. 'Almost two years in, there is no excuse for making sick New Yorkers - or any sick people, anywhere - wait for hours in cold rain to get tested.'
According to the Walgreens website, no Walgreens or Duane Reade pharmacy locations in Manhattan had home test kits or appointments for PCR or rapid testing available on Saturday afternoon.
'We have recently seen an elevated demand for testing, and our teams are working to ensure our customers are being cared for to support this demand,' a Walgreens spokesman told DailyMail.com in a statement.
City-run Health + Hospitals free testing sites were overwhelmed with demand, with the Fort Hamilton site in Brooklyn reporting a wait time exceeding two hours.
Daily new cases in New York City set a record this week since widespread testing was available
City-run testing sites reported huge wait times Saturday as New Yorkers struggled to find testing
New York City had been mostly spared the worst of the big surge in Covid-19 cases that has taken place across the northeastern and midwestern US since Thanksgiving, but the situation has been changing rapidly in recent days
People wait in line to get tested for Covid-19 at a mobile testing site in Times Square on Friday in New York
Kevin Durant (seen Thursday) went on the Covid protocol on Saturday after becoming the eighth Nets player infected
The city is responding to the pressure by opening H+H testing sites seven days a week, opening five new sites, and the city sites are also offering free at-home test kits, according to state Senator Kevin Parker of Brooklyn.
Mayor De Blasio's office and a spokesman for H+H did not immediately respond to inquiries from DailyMail.com on Saturday afternoon.
In Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood alone, more than a dozen bars and restaurants have had to close temporarily amid a recent surge in infections among their workers and patrons.
Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant entered the league's COVID protocol on Saturday, making him the eighth man on the team taken out of action by the virus, even as a huge line formed at a testing station outside the team's Barclays Center arena.
The Rockettes on Friday canceled the remained of their Christmas Spectacular performances and a wave of Broadway productions have gone dark due to breakthrough infections in vaccinated performers.
'It feels very reminiscent of March 2020,' said Spencer Reiter, a 27-year-old Brooklyn resident who works in finance as he waited for a rapid test at a medical van near McCarren Park.
Reiter and his friend Katie Connolly, a student who is also 27, had come to be tested after friends tested positive.
'Seeing these lines... it's kind of back to where we began,' Reiter said. Connolly concurred, saying, 'It's definitely eerie.'
The Omicron coronavirus variant has been reported in 89 countries and the number of cases is doubling in 1.5 to 3 days in areas with community transmission, the WHO said on Saturday.
Omicron is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity, but it is unclear if this is due to the virus' ability to evade immunity, its inherent increased transmissibility or a combination of both, the WHO said in an update.
The agency designated Omicron a variant of concern on November 26, soon after it was first detected, and much is still not known about it, including the severity of the illness it causes.
'There are still limited data on the clinical severity of Omicron,' the WHO said.
'More data are needed to understand the severity profile and how severity is impacted by vaccination and pre-existing immunity.'
It added, 'There are still limited available data, and no peer-reviewed evidence, on vaccine efficacy or effectiveness to date for Omicron'.
The WHO warned that with cases rising so rapidly, hospitals could be overwhelmed in some places.
'Hospitalizations in the UK and South Africa continue to rise, and given rapidly increasing case counts, it is possible that many healthcare systems may become quickly overwhelmed.'
In the US, highly vaccinated states in the northeast seem to be struggling the most at the moment, as cold weather, waning vaccine immunity and the new variant all contribute to a new case surge.
In Connecticut, 74 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, one of the highest rates in America. The state has also seen its Covid situation spiral out of control in recent weeks.
New cases are up 162 percent over the past two weeks, with 72 out of every 100,000 residents testing positive for the virus every day.
Rhode Island currently has the highest Covid rate in America, with 99 out of every 100,000 residents testing positive for the virus every day - up 63 percent over the past two weeks.
It is also the second most vaccinated state in America with 75 percent residents fully jabbed.
The most vaccinated state in America is Vermont, where 76 percent of residents are fully immunized.
The state is experiencing a surge of its own still, though, with 69 out of every 100,000 residents being infected everyday.
To credit the vaccine, though, deaths in all three states have remained low despite recent case surges.
Other nearby states like Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire, all with more than 70 percent of their populations fully vaccinated, are dealing with cases surges as well.
'I think the only thing that it can come down to is behaviors and waning immunity,' Dr Chris Thompson, an infectious disease expert at Loyola University of Maryland, told DailyMail.com about the increasing rate of infections in highly vaccinated states.
'So the boosters will help to overcome the waning immunity and it's up to us to become vigilant about those behaviors of handwashing, masking, social distancing, testing, vaccinations and those sorts of things.
'[There are] also colder temperatures up there, so people are probably gathered together more indoors again, and that gathering can can lead to easier spread, especially with Omicron.'
On Saturday, the variant's spread around the world forced Canada's largest province to reinstate restrictions on social gatherings and impose a curfew at bars and restaurants - where dancing will no longer be allowed - just a week before Christmas.
Ontario announced it will slash the amount of people allowed to attend outdoor events to 25 from 100 and indoor gatherings to 10 from 25 - as well as cutting the capacity in half at restaurants and bars that now must close at 11pm - as the Omicron strain becomes more prevalent.
The province on Saturday reported that 768 people have tested positive for Omicron, after announcing 3,124 new Covid cases on Friday.
'Omicron will not take a holiday,' said Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore, before adding the new measures that go into effect Sunday will give Ontarians more time to get vaccinated.
Large venues such as sporting events, concerts, plays and movie theaters, will be be allowed to remain open but there will be no drinks or food served.
Restaurants and bars will not be able to sell alcohol after 10pm, with patrons having to remain seated and banned from any dancing.
Elsewhere in Canada, the social gathering restrictions have similarly been cut as Omicron infections spike.
In Manitoba, officials are implementing new restrictions on gathering sizes and capacity limits, with the province saying indoor gatherings with vaccinated people will be limited to household members plus 10 others starting Tuesday, according to the Canadian Press.
The limit will be the household plus five for gatherings involving unvaccinated people.
British Columbia is placing similar restrictions on events and gatherings until the end of January, with measures ranging from limits on venues that hold more than 1,000 people to 50 percent capacity, to no amateur sports tournaments over the Christmas period.
The province has also announced the cancellation of all New Year's Eve parties.
The province has also announced the cancellation of all New Year's Eve parties.
In New Brunswick, health officials are reporting 163 new cases of COVID-19, with two more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus as of Friday.
Officials say a person in their 70s died in Moncton and a person in their 70s died in the Fredericton area of Covid-19.
There are 45 people in hospital with the disease in the province, including 14 in intensive care.
Meanwhile, Omicron cases in the South African ground zero peaked on December 6, experts believe, but are still rising in the rest of the country.
Three weeks after the start of the wave, cases of the variant reached their highest level in Gauteng according to expert Louis Rossouw, which was first to feel the full force of the variant.
The rapid rise and fall of Omicron cases in Gauteng has mystified experts, and Covid cases in other areas of South Africa are now rising rapidly.
The Omicron variant is the most contagious Covid-19 strain yet, and is known to spread airborne easier than previous strains.
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