Omicron news US - live: Biden to address nation and deploys military as US has first-known death from variant
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Your support makes all the difference.Joe Biden is to address the nation on Tuesday amid a surge of the Omicron variant of Covid in the US, and the president is expected to stress the importance of getting vaccinated and staying safe this Christmas.
Providing a preview of the president’s speech, the White House press secretary told reporters that Mr Biden does not plan to impose a national lockdown. Instead, he will be encouraging people to inoculate themselves against Covid.
"This is not a speech about locking the country down. This is a speech about the benefits of being vaccinated," Ms Psaki told reporters.
The speech comes after the president himself came in close contact with a White House staffer who later tested positive for Covid-19, underscoring the widespread nature of the virus.
The staffer spent about half an hour around the president on Air Force One on Friday, and was fully vaccinated and boosted, Ms Psaki said. Mr Biden, who tested negative for Covid on Monday, will be tested again on Wednesday.
Biden tests negative for Covid
The White House has said US President Joe Biden tested negative for Covid after coming into contact with “a mid-level staff member” on Friday who later tested positive.
Mr Biden spent “approximately 30 minutes in proximity to” the staffer onboard Air Force One, the White House, said and both he and the staff member were “fully vaccinated and boosted, and tested negative prior to boarding Air Force One”
“This staff member did not begin to experience symptoms until Sunday and was tested on Monday,” the statement said. While anybody boarding the president’s aircraft is required to test negative beforehand.
The close encounter with a Covid contact comes as cases of the virus increase – and according to Reuters, by 9 per cent last week, and by 57 per cent since the beginning of December.
Unvaccinated being admitted into hospital
Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical advisor, and CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky have both warned about the importance of being vaccinated against Covid to reduce the chances of being hospitalised with the virus.
US President Joe Biden meanwhile warned last week that the unvaccinated face a winter of “severe illness and death,” calling on everyone to either get boosted or vaccinated, as a result of the more infectious Omicron variant.
Even before the arrival of Omicron, Dr Fauci told NBC News in November that while there was “an uptick in hospitalisations among people who’ve been vaccinated but not boosted,” it was “not the majority by any means.”
While a booster dose ensures greater protection from severe illness as a result of catching Covid, according to the CDC, an unvaccinated person is 11 times more likely to die of Covid than a vaccinated person.
Kamala Harris avoids blaming unvaccinated
Kamal Harris avoided casting blame on those who were unvaccinated against Covid on Monday night, when she appeared in an interview with CBS News’s Norah O’Donnell.
The Vice President, who said “We have the power today” to bring the Covid pandemic under control by getting either boosted or vaccinated, that it was not “a moment to talk about fault”.
“I don’t think this is a moment to talk about fault. It is no one’s fault that this virus hit our shores or hit the world,” Ms Harris reportedly said.
“It is more about individual power and responsibility. And it’s about the decisions that everyone has the choice to make, no doubt.”
CDC figures meanwhile show that just 61.5 per cent of Americans are fully vaccinated, and 29.8 are boosted.
The numbers trail other Western countries including the UK, where 81.8 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, and as many as 50.4 per cent are boosted against Covid, according to government figures.
500 million Covid tests to become available
Joe Biden is expected to announce the purchase of 500 million rapid Covid tests that will be delivered to Americans for free in January.
The announcement is an apparent U-turn on a decision earlier this month to allow Americans to reimburse themselves through their medical insurance providers, but having to pay an upfront cost for tests.
Public health experts had criticised that initial approach, pointing to other countries such as in the UK and in Europe, where governments have made access to testing a priority throughout the pandemic.
In the US, rapid tests for at-home use are much more expensive than in Europe, and they have proved to be frustratingly hard to find in stores, as The Associated Press reported on Tuesday. Mr Biden is also expected to use the Defense Production Act to help manufacture more tests, with federal testing sites opening up in a handful if states – adding 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.”
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