Month: December 2021

President Joe Biden announced a five-step strategy Thursday to fight COVID-19 including rigid testing for travelers entering the United States and providing free at-home tests. The new strategy comes amid the threat of a new mutation, the Omicron variant, which scientists are still researching.

Biden made the announcement at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md, saying that the strategy includes encouraging booster shots for all adults, establishing family vaccine clinics where children and adults can get vaccinated together and an increase in surge response teams. Biden assured that the two cases of the Omicron variant that have been reported in the United States are cause for concern, but not panic, saying: “We have the best tools in the world. We will fight this with science and speed, not with chaos and confusion. We enter this winter with strength.”

Travelers entering the United States will be required to have a COVID-19 test within 24 hours of departure, and face mask requirements on domestic flights have public transportation has been extended until March 18.   The new strategy also included adding workplace protections to keep businesses open and employing rapid response teams in areas with a rise in positive cases.

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Public health official and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci confirmed on Wednesday that the first case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been identified in the United States.

Speaking during a White House press briefing, Fauci said the case was found in California, adding that the patient traveled from South Africa to San Francisco on Nov. 22 and tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. Fauci said: “The individual is self-quarantining and all close contacts have been contacted and all close contacts, thus far, have tested negative. The individual was fully vaccinated and experienced mild symptoms, which are improving at this point. So this is the first confirmed case of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant detected in the United States.”

The World Health Organization designated the Omicron variant a “variant of concern” last Friday after it was first identified in South Africa. The organization said Omicron has a large number of mutations and may spread at faster rates than other variants. News of the variant’s spread prompted countries across the globe to shut down travel from certain areas of Africa, though it has been detected in European countries.

Biden on Monday sought to calm fears about the new variant, saying that current vaccines should be adequate to combat Omicron, and added that it was a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic.” Vaccine makers said that they are testing their COVID-19 vaccines against the new variant, saying it may require new boosters that can target the strain.

Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams announced on Wednesday that she will launch a campaign for governor of Georgia in 2022. Abrams shared a video saying she would make another run for the office “because opportunity in our state shouldn’t be determined by zip code, background or access to power.”

Abrams, a former top Democrat in the Georgia House of Representatives, became a prominent voting rights advocate following her loss to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018’s gubernatorial election. Abrams lost to Kemp, who was serving as Georgia’s secretary of state at the time, by 1.4 points. She declined to give a formal concession after she accused Kemp and state Republicans of suppressing the vote. The following year she delivered the Democratic response to former President Donald Trump’s 2019 state of the union and was credited with organizing voting efforts that helped Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win their runoff Senate races, which gave the Democrats control of the chamber. Abrams said in her announcement video: “That’s the job of governor — to fight for one Georgia, our Georgia. And now, it is time to get the job done.”

Kemp responded to the news of Abrams’ announcement by criticizing her “far-left agenda” stating that “woke politics would be the law of the land” in the state if she were elected. He said: “Next November’s election for governor is a battle for the soul of our state. I’m in the fight against Stacey Abrams, the failed Biden agenda and their woke allies to keep Georgia the best place to live, work and raise a family.”

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