United States: faced with the Omicron variant, “we are ready”, assures President Joe Biden – franceinfo

Joe Biden assured that the United States was “ready” facing the Omicron variant which is sweeping the country. Speaking Tuesday, December 21 from the White House, the US president reiterated that there was no reason to “panic”. “We all need to be concerned about Omicron”, corn “we must not panic”, he said, while the Omicron variant represented 73.2% of new Covid-19 contaminations last week in the United States. “We are not in March 2020 any more. We are ready.” He thus quoted “three big differences” with the start of the pandemic: vaccines, the abundance of personal protective equipment for caregivers facing the influx of unvaccinated in hospitals and the accumulated knowledge about this virus. Joe Biden was however keen to warn those who are not fully vaccinated, saying they had “good reasons to be worried” and that he was their “patriotic duty” to get vaccinated.

The US president also said he “considered” lift travel restrictions on eight African countries, with the Omicron variant having now spread around the world. Arriving on American soil is currently prohibited for people coming from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.