Faced with the Omicron variant which is sweeping the United States and Europe, Washington mobilized on Tuesday, focusing on tests and vaccines.
In the United States, Omicron is now dominant: it accounted for 73.2% of new COVID-19 infections during the week ending December 18, according to US health authorities. In some northwestern states, the proportion of Omicron hovers around 95% of cases.
It is in this context that Joe Biden must announce on Tuesday new measures in the country most bereaved in the world in absolute terms by the pandemic, with more than 807,000 dead.
The White House detailed the US president’s strategy on Tuesday: tests, strengthened vaccination capacities and additional resources for hospitals, but no new restrictions before Christmas.
“There is no need to confine our schools or our economy,” said a senior White House official at a press conference.
The authorities will distribute 500 million tests for COVID-19 free of charge and the federal government will mobilize a thousand doctors, nurses or medical personnel from the army, who can be deployed if necessary across the country in January and February, and increase immunization capacity.
The United States will also give more than half a billion dollars in additional aid to international organizations to fight COVID-19 amid the outbreak of the Omicron variant, announced the chief of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken. .
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