*There will be new restrictions for travelers to the U.S.
By Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P]
After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported this week that the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus had entered the country, detected as of Thursday afternoon in at least three people, President Joseph Biden announced the Winter Plan to combat COVID-19.
The plan, which Biden said is centered on five steps, does not include lockdowns or closures but rather vaccinations, widespread boosters, testing and additional measures for travelers entering the country by air.
First, he said, the COVID-19 vaccine booster campaign will be expanded nationwide with more reach, more appointments, more hours, more schedules and locations to go, providing booster doses for up to 110 million Americans eligible to receive them.
The second point, the president stressed from Maryland on Thursday, is that new family vaccination clinics will be opened to make it easier for children, parents and entire families to get vaccinated in one place, in addition to new policies to keep children in school instead of quarantining them at home.
The third piece of this, he said, is making free at-home testing more widely available and covered by private insurance plans, as well as being able to get it at thousands of places like community health centers and other sites for those who don't have insurance.
Fourthly, there is the need to increase the number of “Emergency Response Teams”, which will allow doctors and nurses to be less overburdened, and hospitals to not be overwhelmed and to have more staff.
Fifth, he stressed, efforts to vaccinate the rest of the world will be accelerated, while international travel rules for people arriving in the United States will be tightened.
The latter includes restrictions on the entry of travelers to southern Africa, as well as requiring that all those entering the country - including compatriots - have a complete vaccination scheme against COVID-19 - only those with vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm will be accepted.
In addition, starting this Monday, December 6, all travelers to the country must present a negative antigen or PCR test, no more than 24 hours before traveling, regardless of vaccination status or nationality.
The requirement to wear face masks on planes, trains and public transport has been extended both internationally and domestically until March 2022.
“The plan I’m announcing today pulls no punches in the fight against COVID-19. And it’s a plan that I think should bring us together. I know COVID-19 has been very divisive in this country, it’s become a political issue, which is a sad commentary, it shouldn’t be, but it has been. As we enter winter and face the challenge of this new variant, it’s a time when we can put this division behind us, I hope,” the president said.
He added that this is a moment to do what has not been accomplished so far during the pandemic: “getting the nation to come together, uniting the nation in a common purpose to fight this virus, to protect each other, to protect our economic recovery, and to think about it in terms of, literally, a patriotic responsibility.”
He recalled that while it is true that this new variant "is a cause for concern, it is not a cause for panic," as he noted that the country has the best tools, including the best vaccines in the world, the best medicine and the best scientists in the world.
"We're going to fight this variant with science and speed, not chaos and confusion," Biden said.
He recalled that last Christmas, less than 1 percent of American adults were fully vaccinated; while this year, that figure will be between 72 and 77 percent, including more than 86 percent of older people, the most vulnerable population. In addition, children between 5 and 11 years old also already have the possibility of being vaccinated against the disease, and 20 million of them already have at least one of their indicated doses.
“Experts say COVID-19 cases will continue to rise in the coming weeks this winter, so we need to be prepared.”
However, he also reported that more than 100 million people are eligible to receive the booster shot but have not yet received it.
Booster shots remain free and there are 80,000 locations available across the country to get your booster shot, and to find out exactly where to go, simply text your zip code to 438829 to find where you can get your booster shot.
He added that promising antiviral pills on the horizon, both from Pfizer and Merck, could help prevent hospitalizations and deaths in people infected with COVID-19. Talks have already been held with both pharmaceutical companies to ensure their supply and availability to the most affected communities in the country.
The U.S. has delivered more than 280 million vaccine doses to 110 countries, including South Africa, which has delivered all of its requested doses.
He also said that the delivery of more vaccines to countries in need will be accelerated, committing to deliver 200 million doses in the next 100 days, in order to deliver more than 1.2 billion doses to the rest of the world.
“Let me be clear: Not a single vaccine dose that the U.S. sends to the rest of the world will come at the expense of any American. I will always make sure that our people are protected first. But vaccinating the world is not just a moral obligation that we have, in my view; it is the way to protect Americans, as we are seeing with this new variant.”
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