Joe Biden opens winter battle against Covid-19 as US sees more Omicron cases
- On top of a vaccine and testing push, all travellers to the US, regardless of nationality or vaccination status, must provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test
- A man who visited New York for an anime convention and a Colorado woman who had returned from South Africa both tested positive for the new variant
Biden has brought steady leadership after the chaotic Donald Trump years, but the mutating coronavirus continues to defy him, helping drive his approval ratings deep underwater.
Urging the nation – in particular his political rivals – to unite behind the strategy, Biden unveiled a raft of actions designed to tamp down Covid-19 in the coming months, as the latest Omicron variant spreads worldwide.
Three cases have so far been announced in the United States one of them involving a Minnesota man with no recent international travel history, signalling the strain is already circulating inside the country.
The man had recently visited New York for a crowded anime convention. Mayor Bill de Blasio said “we should assume” the variant is spreading in the city.
Colorado also reported a case caused by the new variant, in a woman who had visited South Africa.
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Biden, said peaking from the headquarters of the National Institutes of Health in a Washington suburb on Thursday, said his plan was one that “I think should unite us.”