Joe Biden unveils 5-points action plan to tackle COVID pandemic this winter

US President Joe Biden has unveiled his administration’s winter plan to tackle the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, after the
first cases of the omicron variant of coronavirus were detected in the country.

Speaking at the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) on Thursday, Biden said the plan “doesn’t include shutdowns or
lockdowns” but would be vaccine and testing-led.A

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He revealed “five key actions” that the US
administration will take up to curb the spread of the new variant.

Here are the five actions that Joe Biden
announced on Friday.

Booster shots for 100 million people

Given the virus’ changing nature, President
Biden urged the US citizens to take booster shots. He promised to make booster
shots available up to 100 million people.

“More outreach, more appointments,
more hours, more times and sites to walk in,” he promised.

The pharmacies have been asked to double up
appointments and operate longer hours, “including weeknights and
weekends.”

Federal employees will be able to claim
paid time off in order to receive the shots, said Biden. He also asked private
employers to offer the same.

Biden also encouraged people to text their
ZIP Code to 438829 to find where you can get a booster shot from any one of
“80,000 locations coast-to-coast.”

Vaccinate children 

The Biden administration will speed up the
process of vaccinating children aged five and above so that children can attend
physical classes at schools.

Biden promised to make vaccination for
children easier. New family vaccination clinics will make it easier “for
children, parents, and whole families to get vaccinated in one place,” he
said.

He also launched “test-to-say” policy so
that students can return to schools after being tested negative after serving a
quarantine period.

Free COVID tests at home

Biden said health insurance companies will
bear the expenses of an at-home test so that people can test themselves
whenever they feel. This will help people with COVID positive reports to
quarantine themselves without exposing themselves to the outside world.

“So that if you’re one of the 150
million Americans with private health insurance, next month your plan will
cover at-home tests,” the president said.

For those who don’t have insurance free tests
will be made available “at thousands of convenient locations”. This means
COVID tests in the US will be free this winter.

Caring for COVID
positive people

The US president said his administration
plans to improve care for those people who contract COVID-19 and communities
that experience rising cases.

The number of “surge response
teams” will be increased from 20 to 60 and they will be “ready to
deploy to states that experience a surge in cases” this winter.

Biden added that medicines for COVID, such
as monoclonal antibody treatments and Merck’s new antiviral pill, would be made
more widely available.

“And like with the distribution of the
vaccines, we will ensure that these medicines will be available to the
hardest-hit communities in America as well,” Biden said.

Providing vaccines to countries in need

Joe Biden’s winter plan also includes
vaccination support for other countries that are facing a shortage of vaccines.
“We also need to vaccinate the rest of the world,” he said, citing the 280
million doses that have already been shipped to 110 nations.

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“Now, today I am announcing that we’ll
accelerate the delivery of more vaccines to countries that need it, pledging to
deliver 200 million dose – more doses within the next 100 days – on our way to
delivering more than 1.2 billion doses for the rest of the world,” Biden
said.

Biden also confirmed that vaccine doses
shipped abroad would not come at the expense of any American, but there was
“a moral obligation” to provide vaccines for other countries.