US President Joe Biden has pledged to ease a shortage of coronavirus (Covid-19) as the Omicron variant spreads across US states this holiday week, threatening to overwhelm hospitals and stifle travel plans.
He said the administration’s steps include using a law called the Defence Production Act to increase production of at-home tests and making it easier to use Google to find a nearby testing location.
Biden conceded that the efforts have not gone far enough.
“Seeing how tough it was for some folks to get a test this weekend shows that we have more work to do,” Biden said as he joined a call with the administration’s Covid-19 response team and a group of state governors. “It’s clearly not enough. If we’d known, we would’ve gone harder and quicker if we could have.”
In the virtual meeting hosted by the White House, the president stressed that the rapid spread of the Omicron variant would not have the same impact as the initial outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020 or the Delta surge this year.
“Omicron is a source of concern, but it should not be a source of panic,” Biden said.
“Because there have been so many vaccinations and boosters, we’re not seeing hospitalisations rising as much as they did previously,” he said. “Americans, America have made progress. Things are better.”
However, “with the rising cases, we still have tens of millions of unvaccinated people and we’re seeing hospitalisations rise”.
Rising cases snarled air travel over Christmas weekend as flight crews contracted the virus, causing thousands of flight cancellations.
Curtailed cruises and limited availability of testing crimped other plans as the more transmissible variant took hold.
Yesterday US airlines cancelled about 800 flights, the fourth straight day of cancellations which dented travel-related stocks.
Still, strong holiday retail sales appeared to overshadow economic worries.
Covid-19 infections are rising nationwide, with 205,509 new infections reported on average each day, a Reuters tally showed.
On Sunday, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said hospitalisations in his state doubled in one week as his health department urged caution ahead of New Year’s Day.
Biden warned governors yesterday that the spike in cases was likely to overwhelm some hospitals, whose staff and equipment like ventilators may get stretched, particularly in areas where a high proportion of people are not vaccinated.
He later told reporters that he would follow whatever guidance his medical experts provide on whether to reduce the 10-day recommended quarantine period for Americans who test positive for Covid-19.
The president declined to say whether he endorses a vaccine mandate for domestic air travel, another step administration officials have discussed in recent days.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, has urged people to avoid large New Year’s gatherings to reduce the Omicron-driven spike in cases.
While officials have said that people can safely gather with families if they are vaccinated, larger celebrations are riskier.
“When we are talking about a New Year’s Eve party ... I would recommend strongly stay away from that this year. There will be other years to do that, but not this year,” Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, told CNN.
Fauci said he hoped the surging cases would subside in January but added that more infections overall could still overwhelm hospitals, especially in highly unvaccinated areas.
“We really still need to be extremely careful,” he said separately on MSNBC.
Last week, Biden announced reinforcements to bolster hospitals and testing, but some healthcare experts say that effort is too little, too late.
The United States has suffered a pandemic toll higher than any nation on Earth, with more than 816,000 recorded Covid-19 deaths and 52mn cases.