President Biden has unveiled a new plan for preventing and containing COVID-19 case surges during the winter months as the United States grapples with the arrival of a new coronavirus variant.
The multipronged winter plan, unveiled Thursday, aims to further encourage vaccinations and booster shots — especially among older adults — as well as increase the availability of other tools to fight delta and the newly arrived omicron variant.
The emergence of omicron is concerning, but the United States now is better equipped than it was to fight previous variants, including delta, Biden said in a Thursday briefing.
“Today’s actions will ensure we are using these tools as effectively as possible to protect the American people against this variant and to continue to battle the Delta variant during the winter months when viruses tend to thrive,” the White House said in an accompanying statement.
A key component of the plan is to encourage more of the 100 million eligible Americans who have not yet gotten their booster shots to get the jab. This includes expanding pharmacy availability through the month of December. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is providing outreach to Medicare beneficiaries, and AARP is partnering with volunteers and other organizations to offer rides for older adults to vaccination sites.
Battling rising cases
To keep ahead of rising cases this winter, Biden said his administration has tripled the number of the emergency response teams available to aid the states, with a focus on aid to hospitals and epidemiologists. Among these 60 teams will be more than 20 monoclonal antibody strike team deployments.
Long-term care facilities have used antibody treatments as a standard-of-care to prevent severe illness in at-risk residents with COVID-19. Biden touted the drugs’ effectiveness, noting that they can reduce the risk of hospitalization by up to 70%.
The administration also is keeping an eye on the new COVID-19 pills made by Merck and Pfizer. Each is currently under review for emergency use authorization by federal health agencies. The winter plan will ensure that they will be equitably available to all Americans “if and when” the Food and Drug Administration authorizes them, Biden said in the briefing.
The plan includes expanded access to testing as well. Privately insured Americans will now be able to get reimbursed for at-home tests. Besides being available at pharmacies as usual, at-home tests will now be distributed through certain community sites such as health centers and rural clinics, in addition to the more than 20,000 federally supported free testing sites across the nation, the White House said.
Biden emphasized that the winter COVID-19 plan does not seek to introduce new restrictions, but some will remain in place. Among source control measures for example, the administration will extend the requirement to wear a mask on public transportation through March 18, a rule that may affect many long-term care workers. The requirement includes airport and indoor bus terminals, and rail travel as well.
Employers and vaccinations
Biden will continue to ask private employers to help promote vaccination, he said. Currently, about one-third of workers report not receiving paid time off for vaccinations. Employers are being encouraged to provide the same paid time off to their employees as federal employees are now given when receiving a booster shot.
Likewise, businesses are being called on to expedite requirements that workers get vaccinated or tested weekly. “This is especially important given the omicron variant. No business should shut down this winter because of COVID-19,” the White House stated.
