WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) – U.S. President, Joe Biden, yesterday announced sweeping new vaccine requirements, which may affect about 100 million Americans, as part of a new action plan, to curb the surging COVID-19 cases, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.
“While America is in much better shape than it was seven months ago when I took office, I need to tell you a second fact, we’re in the tough stretch and it could last for a while,” said Biden, speaking from the White House.
Biden put forward a six-point initiative to boost vaccinations, improve access to testing and make COVID-19 treatments more widely available.
The president blamed the remaining 25 percent of eligible Americans, roughly 80 million people, who are not yet vaccinated, despite months of availability and incentives.
“We’ve been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” he said, adding, this is “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
Biden’s latest push to combat the pandemic came, as the Delta variant tears through communities across the country, causing upticks in hospitalisations and deaths, particularly in areas where vaccination rates remain low.
As of yesterday, 53.4 percent of the U.S. population had been fully vaccinated, according to data from the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The country’s COVID-19 caseload was over 40.5 million with a death toll of more than 654,000 as of yesterday afternoon, according to the tally by Johns Hopkins University.– NNN-AGENCIES
