President Joe Biden urged attention on Tuesday but did not panic because the United States has set a new record for the daily reported COVID-19 cases, and his administration is working to alleviate the lack of testing, school closures and other surges in omicron variants. Concerns about interference caused.

Biden made a speech before meeting with his COVID-19 response team at the White House. He hoped to convey the urgency of his administration to address the new variants and persuade cautious Americans that the current surge is not related to the beginning of the pandemic or the last time. What are the similarities. The deadly winter of a year. The President emphasized that vaccines, booster injections, and therapeutic drugs have reduced the risk to the vast majority of fully vaccinated Americans.

When talking about the people who were vaccinated, Biden said: “You may still be infected with the new coronavirus, but the possibility of you being seriously ill is very small, very unlikely.”

He added: “There is no excuse, no one has an excuse for vaccinations.” “This is still an unvaccinated epidemic.”

Compared with last year, more Americans are employed, most of their children are in the classroom, and the incidence of deaths and serious illnesses has decreased—especially among the vaccinated population.

Nonetheless, in the past few weeks, thousands of holiday flights have been cancelled due to staff shortages, partly because the crew members are sick or quarantined, and because of more contagious mutations, schools have reported intermittently that schools are closed. The United States People have seen terrible warnings in the past few weeks.

“I think schools should stay open,” Biden said, adding that they have the funds needed for testing and other mitigation measures to stay open during the surge.

On Tuesday, Biden will announce that the United States will double its orders for an antiviral pill produced by Pfizer, which was recently authorized by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent serious illness and death caused by COVID-19. This means 20 million doses, and the first 10 million pills will be delivered in June.

A senior government official said that in combination with other therapies, such as monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma, 4 million effective therapies against omicron variants will be provided by the end of January.

Biden said of these pills: “They are game changers and have the potential to significantly change the impact of COVID-19, as well as its impact on this country and our people.”

However, Biden is facing new pressure to ease the nationwide testing shortage as people try to determine whether they or their family members have been infected with this variant. The long queues and chaotic scenes during the holidays undermined the government’s image of a pandemic on hand.

“In testing, I knew it was still frustrating. Believe me it frustrated me, but we are improving,” Biden said.

In contrast, the White House announced last month that it would provide 500 million quick antigen tests free of charge to Americans who requested it, but it will take weeks or even months for these tests to be widely used. The government pointed out that these tests are carried out on the basis of the existing rapid test supply, and even a small increase will help alleviate some shortages. In addition, starting later this month, private insurance companies will be required to pay for home testing.

Test manufacturers must respond to the government’s contract requirements by Tuesday night, and the first batch of contracts is expected to be issued this week. At the same time, the government is still developing a system for Americans to order tests and methods for transporting them to people’s homes.

“We will build a free and simple system, including a new website, to provide Americans with these tests,” COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said last week. “We are actively working to finalize the distribution mechanism, which includes a website where people can order a test for free. We will share more details in the coming weeks-the coming days and weeks.”

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In a letter on Monday, Republican Senators Richard Burr and Roy Blunt, the top Republicans on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the Labor, Health, and Public Service Appropriations Subcommittee, called for The Ministry of Health and Human Services answered how the government is trying to solve the shortage of testing across the country.

They wrote: “Because more than US$82.6 billion has been earmarked for testing, and the department has the flexibility to allocate additional funds from the COVID-19 Supplementary Act or the annual appropriation (if necessary), we don’t know why we are facing this now. The situation is grim.” “It seems that this is not because of lack of funds, but because of the lack of a more fundamental strategy and failure to predict the government’s future testing needs.”

White House officials pointed out that the surge in testing demand is not only driven by omicron, but also driven by people seeking to travel safely during the holidays and return to school after the holidays, and that this shortage is global in nature.

Ben Wakana, deputy director of strategic communications and engagement for the White House COVID-19 response team, said on Twitter: “It turns out that Europe and the United States are driving a surge in testing demand… everywhere,” he emphasized the United Kingdom, Similar shortages in Canada and Australia.