12/21/2021
From our White House Journalist Pool:
President Biden has tested negative for the Coronavirus after near contact recently. He is asymptomatic.
Regarding student loans, he has not determined if he will extend the restart deadline.
Previewing the President's Speech on the Country's Fight Against COVID-19
Tonight, the President will address the American people about Omicron, as we head into the holidays.
Early this month, he laid out a robust winter plan to get people to maximum protection as we head into the winter months and a new variant.
Tonight's address will build on that plan. He’ll start by acknowledging that this is an uncertain time and many Americans have questions -- questions about gathering with family, how to be safer, and if we're headed towards lockdown.
Tonight, the President will answer all of those questions and lay out new steps he's taking to prepare for rising cases in the weeks ahead.
Tonight, the President will start, how we know we have the tools to get through this wave. As you'll hear the President say tonight, if you're among the vast majority of Americans who are fully vaccinated, and especially if you've got your booster shot, you have a high degree of protection against severe illness.
Because Omicron spreads easily, we will see fully vaccinated people get COVID-19, but vaccinated people who get COVID will likely have no symptoms or mild symptoms.
Because of that strong protection, the President will tell the American people that if they are vaccinated and follow the process that we all know well, especially masking while traveling, they should feel comfortable celebrating Christmas and the holidays as they planned.
We will also note that if you are unvaccinated, you are at high risk of getting sick. This variant is highly transmissible, and the unvaccinated are 8 times more likely to be hospitalized and 14 times more likely to die from COVID.
Unfortunately, because we have about 40 million eligible yet still unvaccinated adults, and because we know Omicron is more transmissible, we are prepared for cases to rise.
The steps the President will announce tonight will build on the Winter Plan he laid out a few weeks ago. These steps fall into three main categories: First, increasing support for hospitals. Second, increasing access to free testing. And third, expanding capacity to get shots in arms.
The first, on increasing support for hospitals: The President will announce several steps to ensure states and hospitals around the country have the personnel, the beds, and the supplies they need as they battle rising Omicron cases among the unvaccinated.
The President is directing Secretary Austin to mobilize 1,000 members of our military -- these are doctors, nurses, medics, and other military medical personnel -- to deploy overburdened hospitals in January and February.
These doctors and nurses and others will be ready to deploy to neighboring hospitals that need them. God willing, we will not need all of these servicemen and women, but if we do, they are ready and they are mobilized.
Second, we're also expanding hospital capacity. We have already built out two new medical surge facilities in Louisiana, added about 30 beds for COVID patients in Baltimore, and expanded ICUs and emergency departments in California.
The President has asked the FEMA Administrator to activate the National Response Coordination Center and to deploy FEMA planners to assess hospital needs and start to expand that capacity now. Additionally, we will pre-position critical supplies and materials needed to shorten timelines to get more hospital beds online and keep staff safe. We have hundreds of millions of high-quality masks, billions of gloves, thousands of ventilators. We've prepositioned these supplies in strategic locations across the U.S. so that if a hospital runs out, we can get those supplies to states that need them immediately.
Next, we're expanding access to testing. Since January, the President has taken significant actions to increase testing. This summer, we used the Defense Production Act to increase testing capacity, and we will continue to use the DPA.
We've invested $3 billion to expand the number of at-home tests. There are now 20,000 free testing sites across the United States. We made sure the insurance -- private insurance covers -- all insurance covers PCR testing and will also cover at-home testing in the new year. We're sending out 50 million tests to help people without private insurance.
And tonight's steps build on that progress. The President will announce that the federal government will set up new federal testing sites around the country. The first of these will be set up in New York City before Christmas. And the President will announce that the administration will purchase half a billion at-home rapid tests this winter to be distributed for free to Americans that want them.
The initial delivery of these tests from the manufacturer will be in January, and we will be setting up a website where Americans can go to get at-home tests delivered to their home for free.
Testing in the country is a lot better than it was, but there's more to do and we're taking action now.
Finally, we're expanding capacity to get shots in arms. FEMA is standing up new pop-up vaccination clinics. We're deploying hundreds of additional federal vaccinators who will help add thousands of appointments each week. And pharmacies nationwide are adding appointments and capacity across their networks.
The bottom line for the American people is this: We should take Omicron seriously, but this is a cause for concern not a cause for panic. We have the tools, we have the knowledge, we have the planning to get through this.
If you're fully vaccinated and especially if you got your booster shot, you are highly protected.
One other thing related to hospital beds, which is we're also deploying hundreds of ambulances and EMS crews to help transport patients from overburdened hospitals where you might not be able to get a bed -- get a bed to hospitals nearby that might have open beds.
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