Travellers wait to process through a security checkpoint at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport before the Thanksgiving holiday in Seattle, Washington, U.S. November 24, 2021. REUTERS Lindsey Wasson
WASHINGTON, November 29, President Joe Biden reassured Americans on Monday that the US was ready to handle the new COVID 19 Omicron variant, pledging to speed up development of vaccines to handle it if necessary.
Biden said in remarks at the White House after meeting with his COVID 19 team, this variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic.
Biden said that there are going to be cases of this new variant here in the United States. He said that the White House is working with vaccine makers Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson Johnson to develop contingency plans to handle Omicron.
The United States is unlikely to impose further restrictions due to the anticipated arrival of the Omicron COVID 19 variant, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert.
A U.S. ban on most travelers from eight southern African nations were put in place earlier on Monday by a U.S. ban that blocked most of them from entering the country in an effort to slow transmission and give experts more time to assess Omicron, including its severity, transmissibility and impact on vaccines.
Biden said that the travel restrictions were put in place to give the country time to get more people vaccinated. Public health officials' efforts to control the Pandemic have been thwarted by a vaccinal hesitancy in the United States and around the world.
Biden urged Americans to wear mask when they're indoors, in public settings around other people. Fauci told ABC News'Good Morning America program that he didn't think that other curbs were imminent. Many of the United States shut down in early 2020 due to the outbreak, and other measures such as face masks and vaccine mandates have become politically contentious even as health experts praise their effectiveness.