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On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden visited the White House. Credit… The New York Times/David Mills
President Biden will announce on Thursday that more than 150 million Americans with private health insurance will be able to get at-home coronavirus tests reimbursed by their insurers, and that international travelers will be required to show proof of a negative coronavirus test taken the day before leaving for the US.
The efforts are part of a new winter plan to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, which comes as the dreaded new Omicron variety makes its way across the world.
Senior administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to preview the president’s strategy, said the administration would also distribute an additional 25 million at-home tests to community health centers and rural clinics to make them more accessible to those who aren’t covered by private insurers, such as Medicaid recipients.
Mr. Biden will also urge firms to give paid time off to their workers in order to enhance productivity. According to a White House information sheet, the government is planning “a fresh initiative to deploy hundreds of immunization clinics around the country.”
The Biden administration has placed a heavy emphasis on vaccination as a strategy for containing the pandemic — perhaps too heavily, according to some experts, who have been arguing for months that testing and mask-wearing are also critical to containing the virus’s spread, and will become even more so if the Omicron variant escapes vaccine protection.
The variant, discovered by scientists in southern Africa but now found in more than 30 countries, including the United States, has mutations that scientists believe allow it to spread faster and cause more breakthrough infections in vaccinated or previously infected people, though neither characteristic has been confirmed.
Coronavirus tests have been difficult to come by in the United States due to supply constraints, and they are pricey – up to $25 each test. “We should basically subsidize them and make it exceedingly inexpensive,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University.
He pointed out that quick tests are free in the United Kingdom and cost roughly $1 in Germany.
The reimbursement will not be immediate, and it will not be retroactive, according to senior officials, who also stated that three federal agencies — the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury — would issue guidance by Jan. 15 clarifying that insurers must reimburse people for at-home tests during the Covid-19 public health emergency. It was unknown how many tests would be available for purchase.
Coronavirus testing performed at doctor’s offices and other medical institutions are already covered by private insurance. However, there are currently at least eight at-home tests available in the United States.
In the future, specialists anticipate a world in which individuals would test themselves as soon as they notice symptoms, isolate themselves, and seek treatment with new antiviral drugs that are now being developed. The White House claims it is working to get 13 million antiviral medication courses.
The existing mask rule for flights, trains, buses, and transportation hubs will be extended until mid-March under Mr. Biden’s revised policy.
Only six states, regardless of vaccination status, mandate citizens to wear masks inside. Unvaccinated persons must wear interior masks in three additional states: California, New York, and Connecticut.
“The work that we have done to this point has prepared us to manage this variety,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said on Wednesday, referring to the first instance of the Omicron variant in the United States. Credit… The New York Times’ Mike Kai Chen
State authorities characterized the finding as a promising — and expected — outcome of the state’s efforts to be prepared as officials battled to temper concern after the discovery of a case of the Omicron variant in California.
“This was expected,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a press conference in the Central Valley on Wednesday, encouraging citizens to be vaccinated and booster injections. “It’s no surprise that the state of California was alerted.”
The discovery of the Omicron variant in a traveler returning to California from South Africa on Nov. 22 prompted state health officials to increase Covid-19 testing at California airports, focusing on arrivals from countries identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as potential sources of the variant.
Mr. Newsom, who defeated a recall drive in September fuelled in part by opposition to the state’s pandemic health regulations, signaled that the state would not strengthen public health measures or shut schools for the time being.
Mr. Newsom said that “as long as we maintain our nation-leading efforts,” such limits would not be necessary.
Officials from the state claimed it would only be a matter of time before the Omicron variation made its way to the West Coast. California is a first-stop or final destination for millions of international tourists, and the state’s Department of Public Health indicated as recently as Sunday that authorities were watching for evidence that the variation had arrived.
Mr. Newsom said the afflicted patient, a fully vaccinated San Francisco resident between the ages of 18 and 49, was tested after visiting South Africa, where the variation was originally discovered.
According to him, the patient arrived in California on November 22, exhibited Covid-19 symptoms three days later, and was tested on November 28. The following day, investigators at the University of California, San Francisco, validated the variation.
The person was self-isolating, suffering moderate symptoms, and helping with contact tracing, according to San Francisco public health authorities. Mr. Newsom said the individual had gotten two doses of the Moderna vaccination but was still inside the six-month range and had not received a booster.
According to the governor, the state has collaborated with leading experts at the University of California, San Francisco, to sequence Covid-19 cases, expand testing, and successfully vaccinate many of its inhabitants.
Californians were “proud” to have detected the Omicron case, according to Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of health and human services.
After months of advertising by state authorities, about 80% of California citizens have received at least one dosage of the vaccine. Since a summer spike fueled by the Delta strain, cases and hospitalizations have been trending lower, while hospitals in places like the Central Valley, where fewer individuals are vaccinated, have been filling up.
Officials in San Francisco attempted to reassure people.
“Because of the efforts our citizens have taken from the outset of this epidemic to keep each other safe, San Francisco has one of the highest vaccination rates and lowest mortality rates in the country,” Mayor London N. Breed said in a statement. “We knew it was only a matter of time until the Omicron variety was discovered in our city, and the work we’ve done so far has equipped us to deal with it.”
Long-standing mask rules in the Bay Area — among of the state’s most persistent restrictions — have lately been lifted as the virus’s transmission has slowed. Local governments in the Bay Area and other areas of the state have started to require companies to check vaccination status for admission, and more employees have been obliged to get their vaccinations – a practice that authorities say has helped to reduce Covid transmission.
Jill Cowan and Shawn Hubler
On Wednesday, the United Nations’ emergency aid coordinator, Martin Griffiths, spoke in Geneva. Credit… Shutterstock/Martial Trezzini/EPA
Before the epidemic, the United Nations issued one final request for humanitarian relief funds, asking for $29 billion. However, the number of persons seeking assistance has increased dramatically in the last year. As a result, the UN has requested an additional $41 billion in help.
As the epidemic enters its third year and the toll of wars and climate change rises, the UN said on Thursday that it needs to assist 183 million people in 63 countries who are suffering as a result. In comparison, at the time of the previous appeal in 2019, there were 100 million individuals.
Conflicts and catastrophes have displaced more than 1% of the world’s population, according to Martin Griffiths, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, who spoke to media in Geneva to announce the organization’s 2022 financial campaign. Famine is threatening almost 45 million people, some of them are victims of climate change.
According to him, the epidemic has already pushed 20 million people into poverty, according to World Bank estimates, and the new Omicron version would exacerbate the economic impact. “We will continue to witness growing humanitarian needs as Covid continues to harm us and evolve,” he added.
On Wednesday, health authorities greeted passengers in the arrival area of Incheon International Airport in South Korea. Credit… Associated Press/Ahn Young-Joon
South Koreans who traveled or lived abroad and expected to return home without having to quarantine were disappointed when the government stated that exemptions for visitors from all nations, including fully vaccinated Korean people, would be suspended.
Many of these passengers will have to self-isolate for the holidays as a result of the new laws, which have thrown a kink in their Christmas preparations. Previously, such passengers were excused from quarantine if they had been properly vaccinated for at least two weeks.
After the country’s first instances of the novel Omicron variety were verified the night before, South Korean authorities announced the change in quarantine laws on Thursday. The 10-day quarantine period for all new arrivals begins on Friday and will last until at least December 16.
The safeguards were put in place to prevent the spread of Omicron in the community, according to Jeong Eun-kyeong, the commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, who spoke at a press conference on Thursday. She said, “We must improve procedures for incoming passengers.”
On Thursday, the country recorded a daily case count of 5,266 for the first time. Despite a vaccination rate of 79 percent, according to numbers compiled by the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data project, this is the deadliest wave of infections ever. In reaction to South Africa’s first diagnosis of the Omicron strain, South Korea is one of the countries that has prohibited immigration from numerous African countries.
The abrupt shift in legislation has left several South Koreans perplexed and unhappy.
“This isn’t right,” Alisha Kim, a mother of two college-aged boys in the United States, said as she prepared to return to Seoul. She said that if she had known she would have to quarantine when she returned, she would not have undertaken the journey to see them.
“We’ve all worked so hard to follow the government’s rules up until now, wearing our masks and washing our hands, and now we have to quarantine,” she said.
This month, South Korea implemented a “living with Covid” strategy, removing certain social barriers and limiting business hours. Any further relaxation of limitations will be postponed for at least four weeks.
After a boat trip around the Statue of Liberty in November, passengers visited Battery Park City. Credit… The New York Times’ Gabby Jones
Early in the pandemic, New York City was an epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, but today has a greater proportion of vaccinated inhabitants than the national average. The city is now preparing for the arrival of the Omicron variety, which was just discovered in California.
On Monday, the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi, stated, “We do expect discovering Omicron in New York in the coming days.”
So far this year, three varieties have been identified in New York City: Iota, Alpha, and Delta. Each new variety caused concern, but in the end, the consequences were less severe than expected, due in part to New York’s comparatively high immunization rate. Approximately 77 percent of people have had at least one vaccination.
Natural immunity from the devastation of the first wave in spring 2020, frequent mask use, and thorough testing were other important factors.
“I believe we are more prepared than most,” said Dr. Bernard Camins, an infectious diseases expert and the Mount Sinai Health System’s medical director of infection prevention. “The issue is if people are more tired of all those mitigating methods at this time, and they will not listen.”
The emphasis in New York City has been on immunizations and boosters.
“What we don’t want to do is confuse signals about what has the most significant effect,” the mayor told a reporter on Monday when asked why he was advocating mask-wearing rather than requiring it until more is known about Omicron.
“The thing that we need to do urgently is get people vaccinated,” he continued.
On Tuesday, a healthcare professional spoke with a lady who was waiting in line for a PCR Covid-19 test at the Lancet laboratory in Johannesburg. Credit… Getty Images/Emmanuel Croset/Agence France-Presse
Because of an unusually high number of mutations that have the potential to make the virus more transmissible and less susceptible to existing vaccines, scientists and public health officials are concerned about this new iteration of the coronavirus, which was first identified in Botswana and South Africa.
Here’s what we know about the variation — and what we don’t:
What exactly is Omicron?
Despite what experts characterized as a slew of uncertainty, the World Health Organization has labeled Omicron a “variant of concern” and warned on Monday that the worldwide hazards it poses are “extremely high.” So far, cases have been found in 20 nations, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Despite the fact that Omicron has yet to be discovered in the United States, scientists believe it is only a matter of time until the variety appears.
Is it necessary to be concerned?
The discovery of Omicron has sparked widespread concern, with a number of nations prohibiting flights from southern Africa or banning foreign passengers entirely, such as Israel, Japan, and Morocco.
However, public health experts have advised caution, stressing that there is no conclusive proof that Omicron is more harmful than prior versions such as Delta, which swiftly surpassed their predecessors in the United States and elsewhere.
Much about Omicron is unclear, including whether it is more contagious and capable of causing more severe sickness. There’s some indication that the variation makes it easier for individuals to become infected again.
Early indicators suggest that Omicron may only cause little sickness. However, that finding was based mostly on instances in South Africa among young individuals, who are less prone to get extremely sick with Covid in general.
Do Omicron vaccinations provide protection?
In the following weeks, scientists anticipate to discover a lot more. They claim there’s no reason to suppose Omicron is immune to current vaccinations right now, however they might prove to be less effective in the future.
Another reason to stay calm: vaccine manufacturers have expressed optimism that current formulations may be tweaked to make vaccines more effective against new strains.
Also comforting: Omicron’s unique mutations make it simple to diagnose with a nasal swab and lab test.
Credit: Sheba Medical Center/Dr. Elad Maor
When Elad Maor became the first Israeli to test positive for the novel Omicron form on Saturday morning, he originally worried he had exposed hundreds of others to the virus.
Dr. Maor, a cardiologist, had attended a huge staff meeting at his hospital east of Tel Aviv three days before his favorable findings. He had stents implanted in the arteries of ten individuals. He’d also gone north of Tel Aviv for a cardiology meeting, sharing the 90-minute trip with a 70-year-old colleague, and lunched with five others in a busy cafeteria.
Dr. Maor, 45, had gone to a piano performance with scores of people in attendance, where his 13-year-old son performed a short piece by Hungarian composer Stephen Heller. Finally, Dr. Maor had eaten sea bass with his wife and nine other family members at his in-laws’ house last Friday night.
In the five days since, only his 70-year-old colleague has tested positive for the Omicron variation out of this many individuals, the majority of whom had gotten three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Because the virus may take several days to show up in testing and not every contact has been screened, the number might climb. However, Dr. Maor’s institution, the Sheba Medical Center, has previously checked at least 50 patients with a P.C.R. test, with at least 10 of them having been tested three times.
Based on these preliminary findings, infectious disease researchers at Sheba, which houses one of Israel’s finest coronavirus labs, are cautiously optimistic that patients who have been vaccinated three times are not as susceptible to Omicron as previously thought.
Despite the fact that Dr. Maor spoke with a large number of individuals last week, almost all of them were either health care employees or close family members. And the folks with whom he had spent the most time were completely vaccinated, with a third “booster” injection given lately.
Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay, head of the infectious disease epidemiology section at Sheba, who has helped lead research into the virus, cautioned against extrapolating too much from solitary instances. Professor Regev-Yochay added, “But this does tell us that, in certain situations, Omicron is not as infectious if you’re vaccinated.” “And I believe that is a significant factor.”
Despite being completely vaccinated and being a healthy nonsmoker with no chronic medical concerns, Dr. Maor, who was still in seclusion at home on Wednesday night, was concerned that he had been affected so strongly by the virus. The cardiologist was in bed with a fever, sore throat, and painful muscles on Saturday and Sunday, and only started to feel better on Wednesday afternoon.
In a phone conversation, Dr. Maor remarked, “Despite everything, despite the immunizations and the booster, I remained in bed for 48 hours.” “I would have ended up in the hospital if I hadn’t had the immunization.”
Professor Regev-Yochay, a coronavirus specialist, believes that her colleague’s experience highlights the need of travelers continuing to test themselves and avoiding crowded locations for a few days after returning from a country with high infection rates.
Last Wednesday, Dr. Maor returned from London, where he had attended yet another packed cardiology symposium. He had assumed he was okay to function normally after testing negative twice in London and a third time upon his return to Israel. However, his experience shown that the virus may not be detected in testing for many days.
According to Professor Regev-Yochay, each new newcomer to the nation should be evaluated every morning for at least five days after they arrive.
“People should exercise caution,” she said. “Every day, on a daily basis,” says the narrator.
On Monday, at the Staten Island Ferry port in New York. Credit… Getty Images/Spencer Platt
Many public health specialists were outspoken in their opposition to the Biden administration’s drive to provide coronavirus vaccination booster doses to all American adults as late as last week.
However, the Omicron version is beginning to alter that.
Scientists are still unsure if the virus is quicker to propagate or less susceptible to the immune system’s reaction. However, with dozens of additional mutations, the variation seems to be able to elude vaccination protection to some extent.
Many scientists who previously opposed boosters now feel that the injections may provide the greatest protection against the new type. The additional doses may at least delay the spread, giving vaccine producers time to design an Omicron-specific formulation if one is required.
Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease expert at Bellevue Hospital Center who had criticized the Biden administration’s boosters-for-all effort, said, “Based on what we know about the possibility for immunological evasion, I would err on the side of administering the booster.”
The White House isn’t waiting for scientific agreement. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alarmed by early findings concerning Omicron, warned on Monday that all adults in the United States should get booster doses.
However, increased support for boosters among experts may make it more difficult to provide limited quantities of coronavirus vaccinations to impoverished countries. For months, the World Health Organization has warned that the demand for further doses in wealthy countries is depriving poorer countries of the critical initial doses they need. The status of the agency has not altered.
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