President Biden’s COVID Omicron Winter Plan – READ IN FULL

The White House has launched the complete textual content of President Joe Biden’s Winter Plan to cope with the surging instances of the COVID Omicron variant.

Liberty Nation believes you need to have the information with out the spin. As such, we republish the White House launch right here in full.

FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Protect Americans and Help Communities and Hospitals Battle Omicron

Today, President Biden will announce new actions to guard Americans and assist communities and hospitals battle Omicron, constructing on the sturdy plan he introduced earlier this month to get folks most safety forward of the winter and put together for rising instances pushed by the brand new variant.

We know the way to shield folks from extreme sickness, we’ve got the instruments wanted to do it, and due to the President’s Winter Plan, we’re prepared: 73% of grownup Americans are totally vaccinated—up from lower than 1 p.c earlier than the President took workplace—and we’re getting about 1 million booster photographs in arms every day. Vaccines are free and available at 90,000 handy places. There is obvious steerage on masking and different measures that assist sluggish the unfold of COVID-19. And, federal emergency medical groups are prepared to reply to surges nationwide.

Our vaccines are probably the most highly effective instruments we’ve got—they work to guard folks from severe sickness and demise, and boosters present folks optimum safety. While instances amongst vaccinated people will probably enhance as a result of extra transmissible Omicron, proof up to now is that their instances will almost definitely be gentle. In distinction, unvaccinated people are at excessive danger of getting COVID-19, getting severely sick, and even dying. Today’s actions will mitigate the affect unvaccinated people have on our well being care system, whereas growing entry to free testing and getting extra photographs in arms to maintain folks secure and our faculties and financial system open.

Today, President Biden will announce the next actions:

Increased Support for Hospitals: The President will take a number of steps to make sure states and well being programs throughout the nation have the personnel, beds, and provides they want as they battle rising Omicron hospitalizations, largely among the many unvaccinated. Today’s steps construct on the President’s Winter Plan, which revamped 60 Winter COVID-19 emergency response staff deployments accessible to states, and the COVID-19 Surge Response Teams the Administration mobilized over the summer season and fall to battle the Delta surge.

Deploying Additional Medical Personnel

• Mobilizing an Additional 1,000 Troops to Deploy to COVID-Burdened Hospitals: The President is directing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to prepared an extra 1,000 service members—army medical doctors, nurses, paramedics, and different medical personnel—to deploy to hospitals throughout January and February, as wanted.

• Deploying Federal Medical Personnel Available to States Immediately: The President is asserting that six emergency response groups—with greater than 100 scientific personnel and paramedics—are deploying to 6 states now: Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire and Vermont. This is on high of the 300 federal medical personnel that we’ve got deployed since we realized about Omicron.

Expanding Hospital Capacity

• Activating FEMA Response Teams to Help States and Hospitals Add Capacity Now: The President is directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to activate extra staffing and capability for the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) and FEMA areas, and to mobilize planning groups to work with each state and territory to evaluate hospital wants forward of winter surges, and to start out increasing hospital mattress capability now—with the federal authorities paying for all of it. The Administration can be pre-positioning the federal authorities’s personal provides and sources to assist make extra beds accessible.

• Providing Ongoing Support to States to Help Hospitals Create and License More Beds: FEMA has already offered states a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to increase hospital capability. This contains two new medical surge amenities in Shreveport, Louisiana, added beds for COVID-19 sufferers in Baltimore, Maryland, and expanded intensive care models and emergency departments in Fresno, California.

• Deploying Hundreds of Ambulances and Emergency Medical Teams to Transport Patients to Open Beds: To get forward of surges, FEMA is able to deploy a whole bunch of ambulances and emergency medical groups in order that if one hospital fills up, they’ll transport sufferers to open beds in different amenities. Just this week, 30 paramedics are heading to New Hampshire, 30 to Vermont, and 20 to Arizona, and 30 ambulances are headed to New York and eight to Maine. The Administration can be persevering with to supply one hundred pc federal reimbursement to states for all COVID-19 emergency response prices.

Providing Critical Supplies

• Pre-Positioning Critical Supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile: Thanks to the President’s management, the U.S. authorities has a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of N-95 masks, billions of gloves, tens of thousands and thousands of robes, and over 100,000 ventilators within the Strategic National Stockpile—all able to ship out if and when states want them. The Administration has pre-positioned these provides in strategic places throughout the United States in order that we are able to ship them to states that want them instantly.

• Deploying Ventilators to States: HHS continues to expedite the deployment of ventilators to states. Just final week, the Administration despatched 330 ventilators to states like Indiana, Michigan, Maine, and New Hampshire, with extra deliberate deliveries on the way in which to states which are dealing with strains and want them.

Robust Access to Free Testing: The President will announce new actions to make sure Americans have entry to free testing, together with handy, at-home assessments. Since January 2021, the Administration has already taken important actions to extend testing. As a outcome, there at the moment are 20,000 free testing websites throughout the U.S., 4 occasions as many at-home assessments accessible to Americans than have been accessible this summer season, and at-home assessments being made accessible at key group websites, equivalent to group well being facilities and rural clinics. Today’s steps construct on this progress and additional enhance the provision of free and handy testing choices.

• Standing up New Federal Testing Sites: Today, the President is asserting that new federal testing websites shall be stood up across the nation, serving to states that want extra testing capability. The first shall be stood up in New York City this week.

• Distributing Free, Rapid Tests to Americans: Today, the President is asserting his Administration will buy a half-billion at-home, fast assessments this winter to be distributed totally free to Americans who need them, with the preliminary supply beginning in January 2022. The Administration will rise up an internet site the place Americans can go to get at-home assessments delivered to their house—totally free.

• Utilizing the Defense Production Act to Further Accelerate Production: The President is pledging to proceed utilizing the Defense Production Act (DPA) and different authorities to ensure the U.S. is producing as many assessments as rapidly as doable. Through the President’s aggressive actions this summer season, together with use of the DPA, the Administration has already quadrupled the month-to-month provide of at-home, fast assessments within the U.S. The Administration will proceed to make use of the DPA to speed up manufacturing; simply within the final week, the Administration used DPA to make sure that two testing producers have the uncooked supplies and gear they should produce as many assessments as they’ll—enabling one firm to double its manufacturing of lab-based assessments, and one other to quickly to scale up manufacturing of recent over-the-counter and point-of-care assessments.

Expanding Capacity to Get Shots in Arms: President Biden will announce extra steps to make sure folks can get vaccinated and boosted and get their youngsters vaccinated simply this winter. Over the autumn, the Administration has added 10,000 extra vaccination websites throughout the nation the place Americans can get their photographs. There at the moment are 90,000 handy places nationwide, with many websites providing walk-in appointments and vaccinations for the entire household.

• Standing Up New Pop-Up Vaccination Clinics: The President will announce that FEMA is standing up new pop-up vaccination clinics throughout the nation. This features a new cellular unit in Washington, and 4 new cellular models throughout New Mexico which are opening right now. FEMA will assist rise up extra websites in areas of excessive demand over the approaching weeks.

• Deploying Additional Vaccinators: To additional enhance capability, the Biden Administration is deploying a whole bunch of federal vaccinators throughout 12 states, Tribes and territories. Together, these vaccinators will assist allow 1000’s of extra appointments over the following few weeks.

• Allowing Flexibility to Surge Pharmacy Teams: In response to sturdy demand for vaccinations in communities throughout the nation, the Administration will lower purple tape to assist surge pharmacy groups to locations the place there’s greater demand. To accomplish that, HHS will difficulty an modification to the PREP Act Declaration permitting flexibility for pharmacists and pharmacy interns to manage a wider set of vaccinations throughout state traces.

• Continuing to Scale Pharmacy Capacity: Nationwide, pharmacies are including appointments and capability throughout their community. Pharmacy companions have taken steps to surge capability, together with by hiring tens of extra scientific and operational employees nationwide. And, pharmacies are opening up a whole bunch of recent vaccination websites for youths in January.

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