Today President Joe Biden addressed the nation on the rising threat of the Omicron variant and laid out new steps his administration is taking to combat what experts expect to be a deluge of cases in the coming weeks, including increased testing.
"If you're not fully vaccinated, you have a right to be concerned," Biden said.
While he assured the country that this was not a return to March of 2020, the president repeatedly urged unvaccinated Americans and unboostered Americans to get shots in arms as quickly as possible. Though Omicron (B.1.1.529) will likely lead to an uptick of breakthrough cases, Biden said, they will likely be mild in vaccinated people compared with cases in the unvaccinated.
"The unvaccinated have a significantly higher risk of ending up in the hospital or dying," Biden said; "400,000 Americans died from COVID this calendar year. And almost all were unvaccinated."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID Data Tracker shows that 61.5% of Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, 72.9% have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 29.8% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster dose.
Testing more people, preparing hospitals
Key to the winter plan of attack is increased testing. Biden said he has instructed the government to buy and distribute 500 million free at-home COVID-19 tests to any American who wants them, beginning in January.
The president is also expanding free federal testing sites across the country, the first of which opened in New York City this week. He also said he was evoking the Defense Production Act to support COVID test makers.
In addition to testing, Biden said he would be sending 1,000 military medical workers to overburdened hospitals across the country. The White House will also deploy six emergency response teams composed of more than 100 clinical personnel and paramedics to six states: Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Biden's address comes a day after Texas health officials identified what is likely the country's first Omicron-related death. The fatality was in a man in his 50s who was unvaccinated and had underlying health conditions, ABC News reports.
Omicron officially dominant US strain
CDC surveillance data show that the Omicron variant now accounts for 73.2% of sequenced viruses in the United States, becoming the dominant strain in the country exactly 3 weeks after the first US case was identified in California.
Yesterday the New York Times tracked 143,164 new US COVID-19 regardless of variant, and 1,299 deaths.
Children continue to see a high number of new infections. According to the latest update from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), nearly 170,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported from Dec 9 to Dec 16, a 28% increase over the previous 2 weeks.
This is the 19th week in a row child COVID-19 cases have risen above 100,000, the AAP said. Since the first week of September, officials have recorded 2.3 million additional pediatric cases.
In related news, data from Burbio show there were 646 COVID-related school closings last week, up from 350 the previous week, Bloomberg reports.
Other US developments
- Amid dozens of recent COVID-related postponements, the National Hockey League and its players' association have agreed to postpone all games scheduled for later this week, NPR reports. After tonight's games, the league will break until Dec 26.
- The White House says Biden recently had close contact with a staffer who later tested positive for COVID-19, the Associated Press reports. The president has had two negative tests since this weekend and will be tested again tomorrow.
- CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, told CNBC yesterday that the agency is examining its definition of fully vaccinated.
