Over 1.08 Million Daily COVID Cases in US... Biden Announces Purchase of 20 Million Pfizer Pills

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] In the United States, where the Omicron variant is rapidly spreading, the number of new daily COVID-19 cases has surpassed one million. U.S. President Joe Biden announced that Pfizer's COVID-19 pill treatment will be a "game changer" and said he plans to purchase 20 million doses, double the original amount.

According to AP News and others, on the 4th (local time), President Biden held a virtual meeting with the COVID-19 response team at the White House and instructed to increase the purchase of Pfizer's COVID-19 pill treatment, Paxlovid, from the initially planned 10 million doses to 20 million doses. He said, "These medicines will dramatically reduce hospitalizations and deaths caused by COVID-19," adding, "They are game changers that could dramatically reduce the impact of COVID-19."

The initially planned 10 million doses will be supplied from June to September. Pfizer confirmed that the remaining 10 million doses will be shipped by the end of September.

This move comes as the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 is rapidly spreading across the United States. According to Johns Hopkins University, the daily new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. as of the previous day were confirmed at 1,082,549. This is the first time worldwide that a single country has reported over one million new cases in a single day.

The 7-day average daily cases are also approaching 500,000, which CNBC reported is double the previous week. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), during the last week (December 26 to January 1), the proportion of cases infected with the Omicron variant reached 95.4%. Earlier, the CDC announced on December 20 that Omicron had become the dominant strain.

On the same day, President Biden expressed concern over the recent spread of Omicron but repeatedly urged people not to panic. He assessed, "You can get COVID-19, but the severity leading to serious illness has decreased." He also pointed out, "There is no excuse for the unvaccinated," adding, "The pandemic continues among the unvaccinated."

Regarding recent demands for school closures and switching to in-person classes, he drew a clear line, stating, "Schools must remain open." There will be no school closures like last year.

Additionally, he confirmed that the purchase process for 500 million free COVID-19 test kits is in its final stages and that the related website will be launched by the end of this month.

Meanwhile, the CDC announced that it has approved shortening the interval for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot from 6 months to 5 months. Accordingly, people who have completed the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine can receive the booster shot after 5 months. The booster shot intervals for those vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Moderna vaccines remain unchanged at 2 months and 6 months, respectively.

Along with this, the CDC recommended that children aged 5 to 11 with severe or moderate immunocompromised conditions receive a booster shot 28 days after their second dose. The CDC added that currently, only the Pfizer vaccine is recommended for children aged 5 to 11.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.