United States: Joe Biden presents White House's Covid plan

US President Joe Biden speaking on the White House's response to Covid-19 and the Omicron variant at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, December 2, 2021. AFP - MANDEL NGAN

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The American president presented this Thursday, December 2, his administration's plan to cope with the winter outbreak of coronavirus and the new Omicron variant.

On the program: more incentive for vaccination and more tests.

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With our correspondent in Washington, 

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 The credo of the White House and the team in charge of the response to the coronavirus remains the same.

Joe Biden regrets that vaccination has become a political issue in the country.

According to a study from Johns Hopkins University, there is a 50% more chance of dying from the disease living in a Republican state than a Democratic state.

The president therefore calls on his fellow citizens to do so quickly, those who have been vaccinated for more than six months to do the booster dose, and also to have

.

For this, hundreds of family clinics will be created across the country so that parents and children can be vaccinated all together at once.

More accessible tests

The other pillar of the plan is to make tests accessible, which are currently very expensive and less widespread than in European countries.

Private health insurance will be used to finance self-tests in order to make them free.

For people who do not have private insurance, the number of self-tests distributed free of charge will be doubled.

Finally, the pressure is increasing for international travelers.

Whether they are American or not, they will have to present a negative test the day before their plane's departure. 

► To read also: Variant Omicron: "No reason to panic", according to Joe Biden

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• United States

• Coronavirus

• Joe biden

• Vaccines