The Biden administration plans to begin storing millions of tests and pills at home for the treatment of COVID-19, as part of a new 96-page plan outlining the future of federal pandemic efforts. .
“We have reached a new milestone in the fight against VOCID-19. Because of the great progress we have made as a country, the determination and resilience of the American people, and the work we have done to create tools to protect we are widely available, we are moving forward safely, returning to our most normal routines, “White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday.
The plan, first outlined Tuesday by President Biden during his Address of the State of the Union, aims to strike a balance between efforts to alleviate the restrictions imposed on curbing the virus while increasing efforts to address the danger that future variants could pose. Zients has been talking about the White House’s work on the new playbook for the past few weeks; he told reporters that the administration was consulting with a wide range of public health experts, local governments and agencies to finalize the plan.
Many of the document’s commitments would continue federal efforts to respond to COVID-19 as cases fall across the country and combine them with requests for more congressional funding to expand the administration’s more ambitious ideas for protection. the threat of new potential variants.
For example, expanding the nation’s strategic national stock to now include home testing, antiviral pills, and children’s masks as planned by the White House would mark a significant (and costly) change to a previously covert federal cache. focused on buying emergency reserves. for hospitals and first responders.
Stock supplies had risen in part due to previous rounds of pandemic relief money, which allowed the federal plan to distribute some 400 million free N95 respirators in the wake of the Omicron wave earlier this year. But officials say raising the stock to deal with another wave of viruses in the general population would require significant purchases and planning far beyond its current levels.
“The requirements to meet the needs of the general public in a pandemic are much greater than that, exceeding the required three to four billion masks and respirators. And this presents some serious logistical challenges,” he said. Jason Stear stock in a recent event. organized by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Other short-term promises include a nationwide “trial trial initiative” that would establish “unique” sites where Americans can get free COVID-19 antiviral pills. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is working on an updated guide to curb new outbreaks. The federal government, including local Social Security offices, will “lead by example” in opening hours for more face-to-face appointments next month.
In addition to more congressional funding, the White House said it also plans to ask Capitol Hill to provide paid sick leave for COVID-19, restoring tax credits that help companies provide free time to deal with illness. .
Although cases and hospitalizations have fallen sharply in recent weeks, which has allowed many parts of the country to take off their masks under the recently announced guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the pace of new deaths from COVID-19 have recently stabilized at high levels across the country.
The United States reached 75 percent of fully vaccinated U.S. adults vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of last month alone, according to the CDC, and about a third of those eligible for booster injections have not yet been vaccinated. received the additional vaccine.
But between the milder severity of the Omicron variant compared to the Delta variant and protection against vaccines and growing supplies of COVID-19 treatments, the White House says it believes the nation no longer needs to “stop let COVID-19 dictate how we live. “
“Right now we’re still in a situation where, as you know, we have about 68,000 cases. We’re going down in the right direction, we’re waiting, and I think we’re going to get there,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s director. chief medical adviser.
Details of the plan were unveiled on Wednesday by federal health officials sitting in person at a news conference at the White House on Wednesday, marking a change in the months of weekly briefings where Fauci and CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky they virtually united Zients.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, who has played a lower-profile role in responding to the pandemic compared to his predecessor during the Trump administration, also joined the group. Earlier this year, Becerra’s department completed an effort called “H-CORE” to absorb many of the Department of Defense’s Operation Warp Speed responsibilities to purchase and distribute vaccines, drugs, and supplies against COVID-19. .
“It’s wonderful to get back to our more normal routine and do these briefings with my colleagues in person,” Zients said.
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