WASHINGTON – Tighter travel rules, free at-home tests and booster shots are key elements of President Joe Biden’s latest strategy to combat the rapidly evolving coronavirus.
Biden is scheduled to promote his plan during a visit to the National Institutes of Health on Thursday as people begin hunkering down for winter and gathering for the holidays.
The components include:
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Requiring travelers entering the country by air to test negative for COVID within a day of departure, regardless of vaccination status or nationality, instead of within three days.
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Extending through March 18 the requirement that masks be worn on airplanes, trains and public transportation.
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Requiring private health insurance companies cover 100% of the cost of at-home tests for the coronavirus.
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Launching a public education campaign to encourage 100 million adults to get boosters, with a special focus on seniors.
Biden’s new plan is being released a day after the United States’ first confirmed case of the omicron variant was announced and as a new poll shows rising frustration and waning optimism about the state of COVID-19 vaccinations across the country.
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More than half of adults (58%) say they are “frustrated” about the status of COVID-19 vaccinations, an increase from the 50% who felt that way as the initial vaccination effort began in January, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Thursday.
The share of the country that feels optimistic about the status of vaccinations has dropped from 66% to 48%.
The higher frustration and lower optimism are driven mostly by Republicans and, to a lesser extent, by independents.
Even before the omicron variant was detected this month, the Biden administration had been working on a coronavirus mitigation strategy for the winter, when people will be indoors more often as well as traveling for the holidays.
The latest variant, which started circulating as people are still getting infected by the delta variant, only added to the urgency of the administration’s message that more people need to get vaccinated, including receiving a booster if eligible.
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“I keep coming back to that because that’s really the solution to this problem,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday after the first confirmed case of the omicron variant in the United States was announced.
The new strategy includes launching hundreds of one-stop-shop sites for entire families — children through grandparents — to get vaccinated or boosted.
Pharmacies will expand availability of appointments and walk-in vaccinations, spreading the word through text, calls and emails, according to the White House.
Medicare will contact 63 million seniors to encourage booster shots.
The government’s efforts will be boosted by AARP which will offer rides to booster clinics and hold town halls and other educational events across the country.
While nearly all Americans aged 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, less than half have gotten a booster, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Among all Americans, 70% have had at least one shot and 21% have been boosted.
Biden’s effort to increase vaccination rates by requiring workers at larger businesses to get vaccinated or be regularly tested has been paused by a federal appeals court.
President Biden: Omicron coronavirus variant ‘a cause for concern, not a cause for panic’
For the time being, the administration is “asking businesses to step forward and do what’s right to protect their workers and to protect their communities, which is to put in place some sort of vaccination requirement or testing requirement for the workplace,” according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on the president’s strategy on condition of anonymity.
A majority of workers at larger businesses either say their employer already requires vaccination (36%) or say they want their employer to require it (17%), according to the Kaiser Family Foundation survey.
The public overall is split on Biden’s vaccination requirement for workers, with slightly more saying they support (52%) than oppose (45%) it.
The public is also divided over Biden’s handling of the pandemic: 44% approve and 48% disapprove.
Maureen Groppe has covered Washington for nearly three decades and is now a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. Follow her on Twitter @mgroppe.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden to promote new COVID plan that includes free tests, travel rules
