Source: Kget
On Tuesday, December 21, US President Joe Biden announced the outset of additional federal vaccinations and testing locations to address a rise in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant. 500 million at-home tests will be made available for free to all Americans beginning in January.
Biden extended a warning to the unvaccinated, saying that they should have a “good reason to be concerned.” He then provided reassurance to the vaccinated, saying that they can come together for the holidays even with the new variant drifting across the country.
“No this is not March of 2020,” Biden said in a statement at the White House. “Two hundred million people are fully vaccinated, we’re prepared, we know more.”
Biden specifically remarked that those who are unvaccinated “have a significantly higher risk of ending up in the hospital or even dying.” He is referring to one out of four Americans who have not been fully vaccinated or even those who refused to be vaccinated.
Inclusive in the course of action that was announced on Tuesday is to assign 1,000 military medical work force to aid hospitals that are overloaded with COVID patients.
Biden’s COVID-19 measures has received a lot of criticism for its heavy attention to vaccines and for miscalculating the effects of politically motivated anti-vaccine drive in the United States.
As per World Health Organization’s statement, the Omicron variant, which was identified in November, is generating infections to double in 1 ½ to 3 days. There is yet to know what sets it apart from the previous variant Delta’s critical effects.
Up from under 1% in early December, according to current US data, 73% of all the new cases are rooted from Omicron.
With the rapid increase of infections, long lines for COVID-19 tests are beginning to emerge in Washington, New York and other cities across the US. People are committed to finding out whether they are infected by the virus or not before spending the holidays with their families.
“If I don’t I could take a chance of sending it home to my family, and I’m not trying to do that,” said a person waiting in line to get tested in Washington.
