White House coronavirus team will brief governors, Congress on omicron variant this week
The Biden administration is planning a flurry of briefings with state and local officials this week to prepare them to detect and monitor the newly discovered omicron variant of the coronavirus, anticipating that it may show up inside the United States within a matter of days.
Members of the White House COVID-19 response team will brief governors and members of Congress this week, and officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services are providing lab directors around the country with guidance on how to detect omicron using available PCR tests, a White House official said.
The omicron variant, first identified last week in South Africa, has a significant number of mutations from the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 that scientists say could make it more transmissible and resistant to vaccines.
Lab tests are under way to determine how contagious, virulent and vaccine resistant the new strain is. But those tests will not be completed for several more days.
“This week we’ll be speaking with the governors, we’ll be speaking with members of Congress, and ASTHO actually as well, and other state health officials,” the White House official told McClatchy, referring to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
At a briefing with reporters on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that White House officials have been in close touch with state health officials and public health partners.
“Calls were held throughout the weekend with various public health officials at the state and local level,” Psaki said. “These calls included state, county, city health officials; state epidemiologists; state laboratory directors and partners from public health organizations.”
“So that is something that started over the last several days, and we are continuing around-the-clock coordination as well,” Psaki said. “And the CDC is also meeting as well today with state labs, and throughout the week we’ll be engaging with state health associations in order to make sure we are in continued close contact.”
“This variant is a concern — not a cause for panic,” President Joe Biden said. “We’ll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed, not chaos and confusion.”
Biden said that early detection of the variant by South African scientists gave American public health officials time and space to prepare for its inevitable arrival.
“Sooner or later, we’re going to see cases of this new variant here in the United States,” Biden said. “We’ll have to face this new threat just as we’ve faced those that have come before it.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 4:53 PM.
