{"id":156114,"date":"2021-12-17T11:47:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T03:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=156114"},"modified":"2021-12-17T11:47:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T03:47:08","slug":"covid-19-us-pres-biden-warns-omicron-variant-will-spread-much-more-rapidly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=156114","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: US Pres Biden warns Omicron variant will ‘spread much more rapidly’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u00a0 WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Joe Biden warned that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus will start to spread much more rapidly in the United States and urged Americans to get vaccinated or boosted.
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\u00a0\u00a0 “The only real protection is to get your shot,” he said, predicting “a winter of severe illness and death” for the unvaccinated.
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\u00a0\u00a0 He spoke as America is growing more and more nervous over the latest chapter of the nightmare that is the coronavirus pandemic.
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\u00a0\u00a0 As of Dec 1, the average of new daily cases of infection was 86,000. On Dec 14, it had shot up to 117,000 — an increase of 35 percent.
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\u00a0\u00a0 Biden stressed the importance of vaccinated people getting a booster and of those who have yet to be vaccinated receiving their first shot.
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\u00a0\u00a0 Health ministers from the G7 on Thursday called for international cooperation in the face of the Omicron strain, which they called the “biggest current threat to global public health.”
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\u00a0\u00a0 The outbreak linked to the new variant has spread globally, and more European nations are implementing travel restrictions.
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\u00a0\u00a0 The United States, the hardest-hit country in the world, is currently averaging 1,150 Covid-19 deaths per day, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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\u00a0\u00a0 Americans do seem to be in for a rough winter.
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\u00a0\u00a0 Broadway shows are being canceled because of more and more positive tests among drama companies.
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\u00a0\u00a0 Major US universities are reverting to classes and tests online to try to halt the spread of the virus.
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\u00a0\u00a0 The National Football League has introduced stricter health controls after 100 or so players tested positive since the beginning of the week. The NBA has also been hit with games being postponed.
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\u00a0\u00a0 At the White House, too, there has been a change in tone.
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\u00a0\u00a0 A few weeks ago, Biden told Americans the new strain of the virus was no reason to panic.
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\u00a0\u00a0 On Thursday, he brought reporters in at the end of a meeting on the pandemic to, as he said in a no-nonsense voice, send a message directly to Americans: vaccinated people should get a booster and the non-vaccinated should get their shots.
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\u00a0\u00a0 Shortly before, deputy White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre had suggested the administration did not intend to take specific restrictive measures for the moment and to focus instead on vaccination.
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\u00a0\u00a0 “The tools that we have, we know are working,” she said, adding, “We’re just going to continue pushing forward… to get Americans vaccinated and boosted.”
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\u00a0\u00a0 Biden, who was elected largely on a pledge to end the health crisis in America, unveiled on Dec 2 a plan to ward off a steep rise in infections, hospitalizations and death.
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\u00a0\u00a0 But he stopped short of taking more restrictive measures, knowing the issue is very sensitive.
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\u00a0\u00a0 Like people elsewhere, Americans are fed up with the pandemic, and Republicans regularly speak out against the idea of forcing people to get vaccinated or wear masks.
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\u00a0\u00a0 When the Omicron strain was identified weeks ago, the United States halted travel from several southern African countries but did not introduce any other restrictions, and has not tightened health measures on domestic flights.
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\u00a0\u00a0 Biden’s maneuvering room is limited in any case, as seen in several lawsuits that have held up his order for larger companies to force their workers to get vaccinated.
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\u00a0\u00a0 The United States surpassed 800,000 Covid deaths Tuesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
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\u00a0\u00a0 That is higher than the population of some states, such as Alaska or North Dakota.
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\u00a0\u00a0 This year, around 450,000 people have died of Covid, most of them non-vaccinated, even though effective and free vaccines became available in the spring. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Joe Biden warned that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus will start to spread much more rapidly in the United States and urged Americans to get vaccinated or boosted.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “The only real protection is to get your shot,” he said, predicting “a winter of severe illness and death” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":156115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156114"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/156115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}