Here’s how Biden plans to keep schools open as US faces another Covid winter and new variant fears
President Joe Biden will detail the administration’s nine-pronged plan in remarks at the National Institutes of Health, a day after officials confirmed the first recorded case of the Omicron variant in the United States, in California.
“While this new variant is a cause for concern, it is not a cause for panic,” a senior administration official told reporters Wednesday ahead of the President’s remarks. “We have the tools we need to confront this variant, to keep making progress in our fight against the virus, and we are using these tools to keep people safe, keep our schools open and protect our economy.”
At this time, any foreign national who travels to the US must be fully vaccinated, though there remains no vaccination requirement for American citizens traveling via air, either globally or domestically.
Increasing vaccine and booster outreach for seniors and children
The administration will also unveil steps aimed at increasing vaccination rates among children in an effort to keep schools open and protect children ages 5 and up from contracting Covid-19.
“To date, we have already vaccinated over 4 million 5- to 11-year-olds and 15 million adolescents. Vaccinating our kids protects them, keeps schools open, and protects everyone around them,” the White House detailed in a fact sheet shared with reporters Wednesday.
As part of those efforts, the administration will launch “family vaccination clinics” aimed at offering vaccines and boosters for entire families at once, with the Health Resources and Services Administration offering “Family Vaccination Days” at participating community health centers across the country and the Federal Emergency Management Agency offering mobile vaccination clinics to reach hard-to-reach communities. The administration is also issuing a “Safe School Checklist” so schools can safely encourage vaccination and booster efforts and avoid outbreaks in schools through new guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on quarantining and testing.
Biden is expected to announce further actions to export vaccines, including 200 million more doses in the next 100 days, accelerating delivery to high-risk countries, while ramping up vaccine manufacturing to increase global production capacity.
Expanding testing and outbreak response efforts
Biden’s announcement will also detail new steps to increase Covid testing, including the news that private insurers will be required to reimburse the costs of at-home tests for more than 150 million Americans covered by private insurance. In addition, community sites like health centers and rural clinics will offer free at-home tests for those not covered by private insurance, doubling a September pledge to offer 25 million free tests to community sites to 50 million tests.
The President is expected to announce more than 60 winter Covid emergency response team deployments available to states to combat outbreaks and rising Covid-19 cases nationally, expanding a program from the summer and fall.
“Response teams have helped 27 states and two territories respond to the Delta surge by addressing critical needs on the ground,” the senior administration official told reporters Wednesday.
“To date, we have deployed over 2,000 personnel, surged over 3,200 ventilators and other supplies, and shipped over 2.3 million courses of the lifesaving monoclonal antibody treatments. As we face the new variants and rising cases during the winter months tomorrow, the President will renew the federal government’s commitment help with surges and help our states,” the official added.
