HOLIDAY RECAP: President Biden Ramps Up Robust Plan to Protect Georgians, Help Communities and Hospitals Battle Omicron

As the holidays come to an end, Georgians return to the workplace, and kids return to school, the Biden-Harris administration is enacting comprehensive measures to ensure states and health systems across the country have the personnel, beds, and supplies they need as they face rising Omicron hospitalizations, mostly among the unvaccinated. By increasing access to free testing and getting more shots in arms, these steps will mitigate the impact of Omicron on our health care system, keep Georgians safe, and keep our schools and economy open.

President Biden’s New Actions to Protect Americans and Help Communities and Hospitals Battle Omicron include:

Increased Support for Hospitals 

The President will take several steps to ensure states and health systems across the country have the personnel, beds, and supplies they need as they battle rising Omicron hospitalizations, mostly among the unvaccinated. These steps build on the President’s Winter Plan, which made over 60 Winter COVID-19 emergency response team deployments available to states, and the COVID-19 Surge Response Teams the Administration mobilized over the summer and fall to fight the Delta surge.

Deploying Additional Medical Personnel

• Mobilizing an Additional 1,000 Troops to Deploy to COVID-Burdened Hospitals: The President is directing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to ready an additional 1,000 service members—military doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other medical personnel—to deploy to hospitals during January and February, as needed.

Expanding Hospital Capacity

• Activating FEMA Response Teams to Help States and Hospitals Add Capacity Now: The President is directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to activate additional staffing and capacity for the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC) and FEMA regions, and to mobilize planning teams to work with every state and territory to assess hospital needs ahead of winter surges, and to start expanding hospital bed capacity now—with the federal government paying for all of it. The Administration is also pre-positioning the federal government’s own supplies and resources to help make more beds available.
• Deploying Hundreds of Ambulances and Emergency Medical Teams to Transport Patients to Open Beds: FEMA is ready to deploy hundreds of ambulances and emergency medical teams so that if one hospital fills up, they can transport patients to open beds in other facilities. 

Providing Critical Supplies

• Pre-Positioning Critical Supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile: Thanks to the President’s leadership, the U.S. government has hundreds of millions of N-95 masks, billions of gloves, tens of millions of gowns, and over 100,000 ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile—all ready to ship out if and when states need them. The Administration has pre-positioned these supplies in strategic locations across the United States so that they can be sent them to states that need them immediately.
• Deploying Ventilators to States: HHS continues to expedite the deployment of ventilators to states. 

Robust Access to Free Testing

The President announced new actions to ensure Americans have access to free testing, including convenient, at-home tests. Since January 2021, the Administration has already taken significant actions to increase testing. As a result, there are now 20,000 free testing sites across the U.S., four times as many at-home tests available to Americans than were available this summer, and at-home tests being made available at key community sites, such as community health centers and rural clinics. These steps build on this progress and further increase the availability of free and convenient testing options.

• Standing up New Federal Testing Sites: New federal testing sites will be stood up around the country, helping states that need additional testing capacity. 
• Distributing Free, Rapid Tests to Americans: The Biden-Harris administration is purchasing a half-billion at-home, rapid tests this winter to be distributed for free to Americans who want them, with the initial delivery starting this month. The Administration will stand up a website where Americans can go to get at-home tests delivered to their home—for free.
• Utilizing the Defense Production Act to Further Accelerate Production: The President pledged to continue using the Defense Production Act (DPA) and other authorities to make sure the U.S. is producing as many tests as quickly as possible. Through the President’s aggressive actions this summer, including use of the DPA, the Administration has already quadrupled the monthly supply of at-home, rapid tests in the U.S. 

Expanding Capacity to Get Shots in Arms: 

President Biden announced additional steps to ensure people can get vaccinated and boosted and get their kids vaccinated easily this winter. Over the fall, the Administration has added 10,000 more vaccination sites across the country where Americans can get their shots. There are now 90,000 convenient locations nationwide, with many sites offering walk-in appointments and vaccinations for the whole family.

• Standing Up New Pop-Up Vaccination Clinics: The President announced that FEMA is standing up new pop-up vaccination clinics across the country. FEMA will help stand up additional sites in areas of high demand over the coming weeks.
• Deploying Additional Vaccinators: To further increase capacity, the Biden administration is deploying hundreds of federal vaccinators across 12 states, Tribes and territories. Together, these vaccinators will help enable thousands of additional appointments over the next few weeks.
• Allowing Flexibility to Surge Pharmacy Teams: In response to strong demand for vaccinations in communities across the country, the Administration will cut red tape to help surge pharmacy teams to places where there is higher demand. To do so, HHS will issue an amendment to the PREP Act Declaration allowing flexibility for pharmacists and pharmacy interns to administer a wider set of vaccinations across state lines.
• Continuing to Scale Pharmacy Capacity: Nationwide, pharmacies are adding appointments and capacity across their network. Pharmacy partners have taken steps to surge capacity, including by hiring tens of additional clinical and operational staff nationwide. And, pharmacies are opening up hundreds of new vaccination sites for kids in January.

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