Biden to Unveil Sweeping Plan to Respond to Omicron Variant

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday will unveil an aggressive plan to address the stunning surge in highly infectious new omicron variant cases, including getting up to 1,000 military medical professionals to help in overwhelmed hospitals and making 500 million rapid tests to distribute free to the public.

The measures, which were previewed for reporters Monday night by senior administration officials, also include the creation of new federal testing sites and the deployment of hundreds of federal vaccinators across 12 states, tribes and territories. 

The president is scheduled to announce the entire plan at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in a speech from the State Dining Room of the White House.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the omicron variant has dramatically pulled ahead of other variants of the coronavirus and is now the dominant version in the United States, accounting for 73% of new infections last week.

By comparison, in late November, more than 99.5% of new infections were related to the delta variant, which first emerged in the U.S. in June.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said change in the numbers is dramatic — showing a close to six-fold increase in omicron’s share of infections in a week’s time — the trend is “not surprising” and on par with what has been seen in other countries.

The current surge is also unevenly spread across the country. Federal health officials say over 90% of new infections are in four distinct regions: New York and neighboring metropolitan areas, the Southeast, the Rust Belt Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.

Earlier this month, President Biden rolled out his administration’s “Winter Plan” to ensure people had the maximum protection against the coronavirus during a period when rising cases driven by the new variant will coincide with the traditional cold and flu season.

“We know how to protect people from severe illness, and we have the tools needed to do it,” Biden said at the time.

On Monday night, administration officials said 73% of adult Americans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus — compared to less than 1% when the president took office in January.

They also said about a million people are getting booster shots each day.

“Our vaccines are the most powerful tools we have — they work to protect people from serious illness and death, and boosters provide people optimal protection,” an administration official said. “While cases among vaccinated individuals will likely increase due to the more transmissible omicron, evidence to date is that their cases will most likely be mild. 

“In contrast, unvaccinated individuals are at high risk of getting COVID-19, getting severely ill, and even dying,” the official said. 

The steps being announced by the president on Tuesday — all of which are an extension of the previously announced “Winter Plan,” fall into three main categories:

Increased Support for Hospitals 

The administration is taking several steps to ensure states and health systems across the country have the personnel, beds and supplies they need as they battle rising omicron hospitalizations, mostly among the unvaccinated. 

The Winter Plan made over 60 winter COVID-19 emergency response team deployments available to states. 

Now the president is directing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to ready an additional 1,000 service members — military doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other medical personnel — to deploy to hospitals during January and February, as needed. 

The president will also announce that six additional emergency response teams — with more than 100 clinical personnel and paramedics are deploying to the hard hit states of Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire and Vermont. 

This is on top of the 300 federal medical personnel the administration has deployed since it learned of the existence of the omicron variant over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The White House is also taking steps to expand hospital capacity under the auspices of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The president has directed FEMA to activate additional staffing and capacity for the National Response Coordination Center and FEMA regions, and to mobilize planning teams to work with every state and territory to assess hospital needs ahead of winter surges.

In this way, the administration says, hospitals will be able to start expanding their bed capacity now — with the federal government picking up the tab. 

The administration is also pre-positioning the federal government’s own supplies and resources to help make more beds available. 

Already, FEMA has established two new medical surge facilities in Shreveport, Louisiana, added beds for COVID-19 patients in Baltimore, Maryland, and expanded intensive care units and emergency departments in Fresno, California. 

The agency is also deploying hundreds of ambulances and emergency medical teams so that if one hospital fills up, they can transport patients to open beds in other facilities. 

In the past week, 30 paramedics were sent to New Hampshire, 30 to Vermont, and 20 to Arizona, and 30 ambulances headed to New York and eight to Maine. 

Biden will also announce that hundreds of millions of N-95 masks, billions of gloves, tens of millions of gowns, and over 100,000 ventilators now being held in the Strategic National Stockpile have been readied to be shipped out, if and when hospitals and states need them. 

Senior administration officials said these supplies have been pre-positioned in strategic locations across the United States to minimize any delay in getting them where they are needed.

In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services has expedited the deployment of ventilators. In the past week, the department has sent 330 ventilators to Indiana, Michigan, Maine and New Hampshire, with more deliveries planned.

Robust Access to Free Testing 

The president will announce that new federal testing sites will be opened up around the country, helping states that need additional testing capacity, with the first being stood up in New York City this week. 

The administration will also purchase 500 million at-home rapid tests, though they will not be available until January, the senior administration officials said. Once ready for shipment, the government will unveil a website where people can request that tests be sent to their homes, free of charge. 

The president is also expected to invoke the use of the Defense Production Act and other authorities to make sure the U.S. is producing as many tests as quickly as possible. 

Expanding Capacity to Get Shots in Arms

Lastly, President Biden will announce additional steps to ensure people can get vaccinated and boosted and get their children vaccinated easily this winter. 

These steps include having FEMA open new pop-up vaccination clinics across the country, including a new mobile unit in the District of Columbia, and four new mobile units across New Mexico.

All of these are slated to open Tuesday. Additional sites will open in areas of high demand over the coming weeks, the administration officials said. 

In response to strong demand for vaccinations in communities across the country, the administration will cut red tape to help surge pharmacy teams to places where there is higher demand. 

To do so, the Department of Health and Human Services will issue an amendment to the PREP Act Declaration allowing flexibility for pharmacists and pharmacy interns to administer a wider set of vaccinations across state lines.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue.