Biden announces strategy to fight COVID-19 as winter approaches

Looking to avoid what happened last winter, President Joe Biden announced his administration’s strategy to address COVID-19 this winter. According to the New York Times, the United States’ 7-day average for new cases peaked at over 250,000 this past January. Weekly applications for unemployment benefits also peaked at around this time at over 900,000.

“Just like we beat back COVID-19 in the spring, and the more powerful Delta variant in the summer and fall,” President Biden said Thursday. “As a result, we enter this winter from a position of strength compared to where America was last winter.”

According to a news release from the White House, the COVID-19 winter strategy is made up of nine parts:

• Boosters for all adults
• Getting more kids vaccinated
• Expanding at-home testing
• Stronger protocols for international travel
• Workplace protections
• Rapid response teams
• Treatment pills
• Global vaccination efforts
• “Steps to Ensure We Are Prepared for All Scenarios”

“My plan I’m announcing today pulls no punches in the fight against COVID-19,” Biden said. “It’s a plan that I think should unite us.”

One thing the United States did not have to deal with last winter was the Omicron variant. At her daily briefing Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki discussed the second U.S. case of the variant, reported a day after the first case was reported.

“He had been vaccinated. The person developed mild symptoms… on November 22nd, and sought COVID-19 testing on November 24th. The person’s symptoms have resolved,” Psaki said at the briefing. She went on to say the person, a resident of Minnesota, “reported traveling to New York City and attending the Anime New York City 2021 Convention at the Javis Center from the 19th through the 21st.” Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the man had not traveled outside the U.S. recently.

“Just given the timing … it seems quite possible, perhaps the most likely, that this transmission happened at the arena convention in New York City but that’s not definitive,” Malcolm said.

Later Thursday, Colorado became the third U.S. state to report a case of the omicron variant. Health officials said the woman who tested positive for the variant had recently traveled to Africa and was experiencing mild symptoms.