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In the United States, as the number of new coronavirus cases recorded the highest every day, it was decided to supply test kits free of charge and deploy military medical staff. The World Health Organization (WHO) analyzed that the surge in omicron cases in Africa has moderated slightly.
Reporter Jo Haeng.
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President Joe Biden first announced plans to supply high-quality masks in his speech at the White House on the 13th.
[Joe Biden/President of the United States: Next week, we will announce a plan to provide free high-quality masks.]
In particular, he emphasized that "masks are a really important tool in preventing the spread of Omicron, which is particularly highly contagious."
They also announced a plan to supply free test kits, which have recently been in short supply as the number of confirmed cases surged.
All in all, we're giving away a billion test kits for free.
In addition, it said that it has decided to send additional military medical teams to six states, including New York and New Jersey.
In the United States, as of the 12th local time, an average of 760,000 new cases per day and 150,000 hospitalized patients were recorded.
In the UK, the number of new COVID-19 cases per day has decreased to about 110,000, but the death toll has remained at 300 for the third day.
The number of new confirmed cases has dropped to about half from about 220,000 on the 4th.
As the manpower shortage due to self-quarantine worsened, the British government decided to reduce the quarantine period for confirmed cases from 7 days to 5 days.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the fourth wave of infections in Africa, led by the omicron mutation, is flattening after a six-week surge.