Earlier this year, Anthony Fauci announced more COVID tests would be accessible to Americans.
With omicron infections increasing, New York health authorities have recorded a spike in young patients, even as the White House vowed on Sunday to fix the country’s COVID-19 test backlog as soon as possible.
In a statement released Friday, the New York State Department of Health warned of increased child hospitalizations linked to COVID-19.
It found a four-fold rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations for minors aged 18 and younger in New York City from the week of December 5 to the present week.
The Demand for Testing
According to the agency, almost half of the hospitalizations are for children under the age of five who are not eligible for vaccines.
New York sees increase in hospitalised children as Omicron hammers US https://t.co/kWmPxEEEPx
— Vinu Mahanthesh G (@iam_mahanthesh) December 26, 2021
Per the Johns Hopkins University data, the number of COVID-19 infections in the United States has increased, with roughly 190,000 new conditions every day over the last seven days.
The debut of the new omicron strain, along with festive celebrations that often entail travel and family gatherings, resulted in a rush for testing in the United States, where it is difficult to obtain in many regions.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny says Joe Biden is “not accepting any responsibility for this lack of testing.”
“There is no sense from this administration [tests] will be sent out early in January as the president suggested." pic.twitter.com/S9C0MpfjqN
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 23, 2021
On Sunday, top US pandemic expert Anthony Fauci recognized a COVID testing issue and promised further tests would be accessible to Americans in the following months.
According to Fauci, one of the concerns is it won’t generally be accessible to all until January, but there are still some challenges with people having difficulty being tested.
However, he said they are tackling the testing issue, which should be resolved very soon.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden unveiled a slew of additional efforts to combat the latest COVID rise, including the shipment of half a billion free household testing kits after the Christmas testing crisis.
Nevertheless, the White House, whose policy has been primarily focused on vaccines for weeks, has come under fire for the fact that many tests will not be provided until January.
Exceptionally Contagious
On Sunday, Fauci underscored the authorities were stepping up efforts to combat the outbreak, emphasizing that omicron was highly contagious.
In addition to overloading hospitals and COVID testing centers, the COVID variant has prompted the postponement of scores of flights in the United States, as personnel phoned in ill or had to be isolated after being exposed to the virus.
According to Fauci, recent trials in the United Kingdom and South Africa show omicron is much less likely to provoke hospitalization than previous variants of the virus. The length of stay in the hospital and oxygen demands for patients were reduced.
However, he cautioned that omicron’s seeming lesser ferocity is likely to be offset by its quick dissemination.
According to Fauci, the concern they don’t want to become smug about is when there’s such a vast quantity of new cases, it may outweigh a genuine reduction in severity.
