President Joe Biden on Tuesday warned of ‘challenging’ weeks ahead as he urged unvaccinated Americans to seek out shots as the best way to protect themselves from the surging Omicron variant of COVID-19.
A day earlier, the country set a new record with almost a million new cases of COVID, many of them in vaccinated and boosted people, amid a surge in hospitalizations.
‘There’s no excuse, there’s no excuse for anyone being unvaccinated,’ he said before receiving an update from his COVID-19 team.
‘This continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated.’
Biden delivered his remarks – his first on COVID-19 since Dec. 28 – as the omicron variant gripped the nation, forcing businesses and schools to close, and airlines to cancel hundreds of flights.
He tried to balance a sense of urgency in persuading 35 million unvaccinated Americans to take action, with a message that the latest wave bears little resemblance to the early months of the pandemic.
President Joe Biden urged 35 million unvaccinated Americans to get their shots as the best way to protect themselves from the rampant Omicron variant of COVID-19
Biden delivered his remarks ahead of a meeting with his COVID-19 response team, including Vice President Kamala Harris and his chief scientific adviser Anthony Faouci
‘These coming weeks are going to be challenging,’ he said.
‘Please wear your mask in public to protect yourself and others. We’re going to get through this.’
But he admitted that vaccinated Americans were not immune from catching the virus.
‘You can still get COVID but it’s highly unlikely … very unlikely … that you become seriously ill,’ he said.
‘And we’re seeing COVID-19 cases among vaccinated workplaces across America including here at the White House, but if you’re vaccinated and boosted you are highly protected.’
The president said he was frustrated by the nationwide shortage of tests, but he said the country had the tools it needed.
‘I know we’re all tired and frustrated about the pandemic,’ he said.
He said the country was better equipped then ever to respond, and announced his administration had ordered an extra 10 million courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 treatment pill, doubling its purchase of the antiviral medication.
‘Schools can and should be open this winter,’ he added. ‘We have all the tools to keep kids safe.’
However, Republicans seized on the latest dire numbers to accuse Biden of letting down voters who believed his campaign promise to ‘shut down the virus.’
Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel said: ‘After forcing Americans out of jobs with authoritarian mandates, crushing small businesses, restricting the accessibility of therapeutics, failing to deliver tests, and closing schools for children, Biden has now waved the white flag on fighting COVID.’
The United States reported almost 1 million new coronavirus cases on Monday, setting a global record for the pandemic.
And almost one in 100 Americans tested positive for the virus in the past week alone, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
However, while hospitalizations have surged the average number of deaths per day remained steady throughout December and into early January.
Health experts say that although the Omicron variant is highly transmissible it causes less severe illness.
According to the CDC, Omicron now accounts for more than 95 percent of all new cases.
Throughout each twist, the Biden administration has emphasized that vaccinations offer the best way to protect against severe infections.
Earlier in the day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated it guidance for when many people can receive a booster shot, shortening the interval from 6 months to 5 months for patients who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The U.S. reported almost a million infections on Monday as the country is gripped by Omicron
And it recommended that moderately or severely immunocompromised 5 to 11-year-olds receive a booster 28 days after their second shot.
‘Following the FDA’s authorizations, today’s recommendations ensure people are able to get a boost of protection in the face of Omicron and increasing cases across the country, and ensure that the most vulnerable children can get an additional dose to optimize protection against COVID-19,’ said CDC director Rochelle Walensky.
Another 1,688 deaths were recorded across the country on Monday, and the seven-day rolling average of deaths stood at 1,340, marking a 12 percent decline from week-ago levels.
Hospitalizations have risen by about a third in the past week, at around 100,000, but remain nearly 30 percent below the peak levels recorded last January, when case numbers were much lower than they stand today.
‘We’re now in a totally different phase,’ Monica Gandhi, an immunologist at the University of California, San Francisco, told Bloomberg. ‘The virus is always going to be with us, but my hope is this variant causes so much immunity that it will quell the pandemic.’
