WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden announced Wednesday the launch of a “one-stop-shop” online page to get data on COVID-19 and where to get tests, vaccines and remedies for the virus, while calling on Congress to provide more investment to combat the pandemic.
“Because of the strategy implemented over the last year on vaccines, tests, treatments, etc. , we are now in a new moment of this pandemic,” Biden said at the White House. “This does not mean that COVID-19 is over. This means that COVID-19 no longer controls our lives.
After announcing the new website, COVID. gov, Biden won his vaccine booster moment. A day earlier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans over the age of 50 and those with weakened immune systems receive an additional injection at least 4 months later. their initial reinforcements.
The online page shows the prevalence of the virus in the county and provides data on where to locate tests, vaccines, masks and treatments.
As of Wednesday, Spokane County had a low point of network transmission, while Kootenai County had an average point, according to the website, “because the degrees of hospitalizations, cases, and inpatients for COVID-19 are beginning to deplete the local fitness system. “
While Biden touted his administration’s progress against the pandemic (nearly every school in the country is open and vaccines are widely available), he warned that some other outbreak of infections could push the country back without sufficient investment for treatment. .
A dispute over how to pay a $15. 6 bill for pandemic aid requested through the White House has forced Democratic leaders to pull out of a government investment bill approved On March 10.
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is negotiating with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D. Y. , an independent bill to supply the budget management says it wants for vaccines, antiviral drugs and other pandemic-critical equipment.
“Now that we have reached the critical tipping point in this fight, Congress will have to provide the investment the United States desires to continue fighting COVID-19,” Biden said.
“We are already seeing the result of congressional inaction. “
Management had to cancel planned orders for monoclonal antibodies, used to treat severe CASES of COVID-19, and state materials because of limited funding, Biden said.
“It’s not partisan; it’s medicine,” Biden added. With no more funds, we will start running out of them until the end of May. “
Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. , urged her colleagues to pass this investment bill and more assistance for restaurants and other small businesses whose effects have suffered from the pandemic.
“We don’t know when the next variant might take place or how serious it might be,” said Murray, who chairs the Senate Health Committee. “We don’t need to be in the same position as before, where we didn’t have enough evidence. , vaccines or therapies”.
Without more investment, Biden said, the government will not be able to meet its existing testing capacity beyond June. At least 10 Republican senators are expected to vote in favor of an investment bill, along with 50 Democrats, to triumph over obstructionism.
Orion Donovan-Smith’s reports for The Spokesman-Review are funded in part through Report for America and members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished through other organizations to obtain a loose Creative Commons license. For more information on this, tap on the editorial director of our newspaper.