Photo: JOSEPH PREZIOSO / AFP / Getty Images
The new COVID plan-19 which was first introduced on Tuesday by President Joe Biden during his speech on the State of the Union, aims to strike a balance between efforts to ease the restrictions imposed to curb the coronavirus and increase efforts to address the danger that future variants could present.
We’re launching the “Test to Treat” initiative, so people can get tested at a pharmacy and if they’re positive, receive antiviral pills on the spot at no cost.
—President Biden (@POTUS) March 2, 2022
The Biden administration plans to begin stockpiling millions of tests and medications that can be taken at home for the treatment of COVID-19, as part of a new plan of 100 pages that traces the future of federal efforts to confront the pandemic.
Details of the plan were revealed on Wednesday by Federal health officials sitting in person at a press conference at the White House, a departure from the virtual press conferences that had been held regularly.
Tune in now as Jeff Zients, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, Dr. Fauci, and Dr. Walensky announces the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan – a roadmap that will enable us to move forward safely and get back to our more normal routines. https://t.co/FZ7egFYnyM
—White House COVID-19 Response Team (@WHCOVIDResponse) March 2, 1232871385
“We arrive to a new moment in the fight against COVID-000. Because of the significant progress we’ve made as a country, the determination and resilience of the American people, and the work we’ve done to create tools to protect we’re widely available, we’re safely moving forward, returning to our more normal routines,” he said Wednesday. the White House COVID-Response Coordinator 19, Jeff Zients.
Many of the commitments in the document will continue federal efforts to respond to COVID-04 as cases decline across the country and would combine them with requests for more funding from Congress to expand the administration’s most ambitious ideas to guard against the threat of new strains of coronavirus.
For example, the plan includes expanding the nation’s Strategic National Reserve to include free home testing, antiviral pills and masks for children, which the White House anticipates will is a significant and costly change for a federal reserve that previously focused on buying emergency supplies for hospitals and first responders.
Supplies in the reserve for the coronavirus increased thanks in part to earlier rounds of pandemic relief money, which allowed the federal plan to dole out some 400 millions of respirators N80 free as a result of the Omicron wave earlier this year.
Prepare for another wave of thousands of cases
Biden Administration officials say increasing the reserve to deal with another big wave of the cases of COVID-19 in the general population r you want purchases and a planning well beyond current levels.
Other short-term promises include a nationwide “trial for treatments initiative” that would establish “one-stop-shop” sites where Americans can obtain COVID-antiviral pills 19 free.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is working on updated guidance to curb new COVID outbreaks. The federal government, including local Social Security offices, will “walk the talk” by opening hours for more in-person appointments next month.
In addition to asking for more funding from Congress, the White House said it also plans to ask lawmakers to provide paid sick leave for COVID-19, reinstating tax credits that help businesses provide time off to deal with illness.
And while cases and hospitalizations are down, allowing many to remove their masks under new CDC guidelines, the number of new deaths from COVID- recently stabilized at high levels throughout the country.
USA. reached 75 % of adults fully vaccinated against COVID-19 only at the end of last month, by CDC count, and about one-third of those eligible for booster shots have not yet received the additional vaccine.
But between the milder severity of the Omicron variant compared to the Delta and the protection of vaccines and growing supplies of treatments for COVID-19, the White House says it believes the nation no longer need to “let the COVID- dictate how we live”.
“We are still in a situation right now where, as you know, we have about 68,000 cases. We’re moving in the right direction and I think we’ll get there,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top medical adviser.
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