The White House is set to announce new plans to combat the Omicron coronavirus variant, including a national campaign encouraging vaccine boosters, free at-home tests and requiring international travelers to take a Covid test within 24 hours of departure.
President Joe Biden will promote his latest strategy during a visit to the National Institute of Health on Thursday afternoon. The new guidelines come as Americans ease into the holiday season — and concerns over the Omicron variant grow with two confirmed cases in the states.
In accordance to the new plan, private insurers will be required to cover the cost of at-home Covid-19 tests. More rigorous testing for people entering the US will also be required, regardless of their vaccination status. Instead of a negative test within three days, incoming international travelers will have to get tested for Covid-19 within 24 hours of departure.
While some nations struggling with fighting off the Omicron variant have closed their borders or gone back into lockdowns, Biden says he is not looking to impose additional restrictions beyond urging Americans to wear masks indoors in public settings.
Biden said Wednesday that the strategy would fight the virus, ‘not with shutdowns or lockdowns but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing, and more’.
His plan comes a day after the first confirmed case of the Omicron variant was found in the US in California. A second case of the omicron variant was confirmed early Thursday in Minnesota.
The news of the variant’s arrival comes shortly after both Biden and his chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci said it was inevitable the variant would surface in the states.
‘We knew that it was just a matter of time,’ Fauci told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.
Fauci added that the discovery ‘is another example of why it’s important for people to get vaccinated who’ve not been vaccinated, but also boosting’.
The Biden administration touts widespread vaccination and booster shots as the most effective tool in combatting the coronavirus this winter. Medical experts also say the boosters will provide patients a more enhanced protection against both Covid-19 and its new variants.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the global risk of the new variant is ‘very high’.
The variant has a high number of mutations that suggest it may spread just as or more easily than the Delta variant, which currently accounts for 99.9 % of Covid-19 cases in the US.
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