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Fauci warns ‘raging’ Omicron will strain US hospitals

President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser has warned of “stress” on the US hospital system as new coronavirus infections tied to the highly transmissible variant of Omicron begin to “raise”. throughout the United States and the world.

“Our hospitals, if things look like they are now, the next week or two will be very stressful for everyone,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. told ABC on Sunday. .

“We have a lot of people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated but are still unvaccinated. And that would be a real strain on the hospital system,” he added.

Fauci’s warning comes as Covid-19 infections in the US have spiked in the past week: both New York and the District of Columbia reported consecutive days of record cases. On Sunday, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker both announced that they had tested positive.

The big concern is that this new surge could overwhelm the US health system assuming it is accompanied by increased hospitalization rates, especially among Americans who are unvaccinated or not getting booster shots. .

The spread of the Omicron variant has also put pressure on the White House to step up its own Covid response: Biden is expected to speak on Tuesday to lay out his administration’s plan to combat this increase.

Access to vaccines and rapid tests is difficult in some cities, jeopardizing responding to a new wave of cases. Fauci acknowledged that the availability of tests was “flawed” but said within “a week or two or three” there would be more. The goal, he added, is “to get anywhere from 200m to 500m tests per month, which means there will be a lot of tests”.

In a separate interview with NBC on Sunday, Fauci said Biden’s focus on Tuesday will be “upgrading some of the things that we talked about.”

These include “increasing people who get vaccinated, getting kids vaccinated, making testing more available, having surgical teams because we know we will need them because of the need for hospitalization.” will increase, enhancing travel safety and delivering vaccines to the rest of the world.”

White House officials have so far ruled out any Travel restrictions, although the US currently requires a Covid test within one day of arrival in the US.

Fauci also urged Americans to be “cautious” with their vacation plans.

“You have to wear a mask on the plane. Don’t do things like hang out with people you don’t know their vaccination status. . . some people even go that extra step or maybe even get checked when you have people over the house,” he said.

“Nothing is 100% risk-free, but I think if you do the things that I just mentioned, you will really reduce that risk to the point where it feels good to be able to enjoy the vacation.” I said.

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