Washington: With the Omicron variant on the march, President Joe Biden plans to announce 500 million free rapid tests for Americans, increased support for hospitals under strain, and a redoubling of vaccination and boosting efforts. In a speech scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, Biden would be detailing major changes to his COVID-19 winter plan, his hand forced by the arrival of the fast-spreading variant, whose properties are yet not fully understood by scientists.
A cornerstone of the plan is Biden’s decision for the government to purchase 500 million coronavirus rapid tests and ship them free to Americans starting in January. People will use a new website to order their tests, which will then be sent to them by US mail at no charge, the White House said. It marks a major shift for Biden, who earlier had called for many Americans to purchase the hard-to-find tests on their own and then seek reimbursement from their health insurance. For the first time, the US government will send free COVID-19 tests directly to Americans, after more than a year of urging by public health experts.
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Experts had criticised Biden’s initial buy-first, get-paid-later approach as unwieldy and warned that the US would face another round of problems with testing at a critical time.
The new testing sites will add to 20,000 already available. White House officials said they’re working with Google so that people will be able to find them by searching “free COVID test near me.”
Still, Biden’s testing surge would fall far short of the levels needed for all Americans to test at the recommended rate of twice weekly. The US would need 2.3 billion tests per month for everyone 12 and older to do that, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s nearly five times more than the half-billion tests Biden will deploy.
Currently, the US can conduct about 600 million tests per month, with home tests accounting for about half, according to researchers from Arizona State University. In another plan, he is prepared to deploy an additional 1,000 troops with medical skills to assist hospitals buckling under the virus surge. Additionally, he is immediately sending federal medical personnel to Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire, and Vermont. There are also plans to ready additional ventilators and protective equipment from the national stockpile, expanding hospital resources.
As a backstop, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will deploy hundreds of ambulances and paramedic teams so that if one hospital fills up, they can transport patients to open beds in other facilities. Ambulances are already headed to New York and Maine, and paramedic teams are going to New Hampshire, Vermont, and Arizona.
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But vaccination remains the main defence since it can head off disease in the first place. The government will stand up multiple vaccination sites and provide hundreds of personnel to administer shots. New rules will make it easier for pharmacists to work across state lines to administer a broader range of shots.
For those who are already fully vaccinated, a booster shot has been shown in lab tests to provide strong protection against Omicron. Although reports of breakthrough cases abound, data show that vaccinated people who become infected are much less likely to suffer serious diseases leading to hospitalization or death. To the unvaccinated, Biden plans to deliver a stern admonition that they’re risking their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
There are 40 million eligible but unvaccinated American adults. Efforts to increase vaccination rates have struggled to overcome a series of political, social and cultural divides.
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In New York City, nearly 42,600 people citywide tested positive from Wednesday through Saturday — compared with fewer than 35,800 in the entire month of November. The city has never had so many people test positive in such a short period of time since testing became widely available.
France and Germany have barred most British travellers from entering, and the government in Paris has banned public concerts and fireworks displays at New Year’s celebrations. Stock markets in Asia, Europe, and the US fell on Monday with the expectation that the infections could weigh on global economic growth and worsen global supply chain challenges.
