Coming Weeks Going To Be Challenging Amid Covid Surge: White House
The White House COVID-19 Response Team has warned that the coming weeks are going to be challenging as the Omicron variant continues to spread fast among US communities.
“We’re going to see cases continue to rise because Omicron is a very transmissible variant,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said at a routine news conference Wednesday.
In the same platform, Chief Medical Advisor to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “The Omicron variant, so far, appears to be less severe than the Delta. But remember the caveat: Rapid community spread is seeing larger numbers of children being hospitalized — again, mostly among the unvaccinated.”
CDC director Dr.Rochelle Walensky said that an estimate based on CDC genomic sequencing shows that Omicron represents about 95 percent of cases in the country, and Delta represents the remaining 5 percent of the cases.
An average of about 14,800 Covid patients are being admitted in US hospitals per day, an increase of about 63 percent over the previous week, she told reporters.
White House COVID-19 Response Team said a total of 2.4 million pieces of personal protective equipment — PPE — were shipped in the last two weeks alone to help keep healthcare workers safe.
Free testing centers were established in locations across the nation, with additional new sites opening soon in Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Delaware, Texas, and Washington State.
The first tranche of 10 million Pfizer antiviral pill treatment courses, which are capable of dramatically decreasing hospitalizations and deaths, will be delivered by the end of June instead of September end.
The weekly average of Covid cases in the U.S. skyrocketed by 247 percent in two weeks, driven by the more easily transmitted Omicron variant.
With 643660 new cases reporting on Wednesday, the national total rose to 57,762,144, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.
With 1986 additional casualties, the total Covid death toll has risen to 832,148.
Hospital admissions have increased by 53 percent, to 107,094, according to data compiled by the New York Times.
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