Omicron news: Fauci tells US not to ‘freak out’ and Biden rules out lockdown as no cases reported yet

New York City Health Commissioner Dr Dave Chokshi said the city’s Covid-19 surveillance and testing programme will likely be able to determine omicron’s arrival “quite rapidly.”

“We believe that it will be a matter of days before omicron is detected in the United States and very likely in New York City,” he said during a briefing on Monday.

The city was a Covid epicentre at the onset of the pandemic, as researchers determined that community transmission was likely underway by late February 2020.

Roughly 76 per cent of city residents are vaccinated, and more than 69 per cent are fully vaccinated, according to city health data.

Ninety-eight per cent of new confirmed infections are from the delta variant.

Joe Biden did not rule out the possibility of further travel restrictions to combat or delay the spread of the omicron variant of Covid-19.

Effective today, the US has temporarily halted travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi. The new policy does not apply to US citizens or lawful permanent residents.

In the unlikely event that omicron requires more vaccine response, US health officials “will accelerate their development and deployment, and every available tool,” Biden said.

“We do not believe additional measures are needed,” he said, but the White House is “already working” to develop “contingency plans” for vaccines and boosters “if needed” with drug manufacturers Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

In his address from the White House, Joe Biden says the emergence of omicron is a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”

“We’re going to fight and beat this new variant as well,” he said.

He pointed to widely available vaccines and vigilance among science and health officials.

“The best protection ... is getting fully vaccinated, and getting a booster shot,” he said.

Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said there is “reason to be pretty optimistic” against the emergence of the omicron variant among those who are vaccinated against Covid-19.

“All of the other variants that have emerged during this Covid-19 pandemic have shown response to the vaccine, including delta,” Dr Collins said on on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday.

“So if there’s a message I would like people to hear this morning is get the vaccinations and the boosters,” he said. “This is the best way to protect yourself against delta – which is still very much with us in the US – and omicron, if it comes to the US, which it almost certainly will at some point.”

The Transportation Security Administration screened nearly 2.5 million people at airports across the US on Sunday, marking the busiest day for air travel since the onset of the pandemic.

Nearly 21 million passengers passed through airport checkpoints within the week through Thanksgiving weekend, and more than doubling the number of passengers from the same time in 2020, the agency reported.

The agency’s busiest-ever travel day in its history was the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2019, when nearly 2.9 million people traveled through US airports.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are receiving a briefing from members of the White House Covid-19 Response team before the president will deliver remarks about the status of the omicron variant and the government’s response.

He is scheduled to speak at 11.45am EST from the Roosevelt Room at the White House.

More than 196 million Americans, or nearly 60 per cent of the US population, has received both doses of two-dose Covid-19 vaccines from either Pfizer or Moderna, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

And more than 37 million Americans have received a “booster” vaccine dose, including more than 42 per cent of Americans over age 65.

Nearly 70 per cent of the US has received at least one dose.

Dr Anthony Fauci told the White House that existing vaccines “are likely to provide a degree of protection against severe cases of Covid,” according to a White House statement.

“Dr Fauci also reiterated that boosters for fully vaccinated individuals provide the strongest available protection from Covid,” the Sunday night statement said. “The Covid Response Team’s immediate recommendation to all vaccinated adults is to get a booster shot as soon as possible; all adults are eligible for a booster if they were vaccinated six months ago or more with Pfizer or Moderna, or two months ago or more with Johnson & Johnson. Importantly, those adults and children who are not yet fully vaccinated should get vaccinated immediately.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has issued a “mask advisory” for all indoor scenarios regardless of vaccination status as the US bolsters itself against the emergence of the omicron variant. Health officials have not yet detected the variant in the US.

White House chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci told US president Joe Biden that it will take at least about two weeks to have definitive information about the omicron coronavirus variant.

Dr Fauci, who had earlier said that omicron will “inevitably" reach the US, met President Biden on Sunday with his Covid-19 response team to update him about the latest developments related to the new variant.

“It will take approximately two more weeks to have more definitive information on the transmissibility, severity, and other characteristics of the variant,” Dr Fauci told Mr Biden, according to a statement by the White House.