Ómicron: Biden promises to accelerate the donation of vaccines to other countries in the face of the new variant of the coronavirus

The American President, Joe Biden, pledged this Thursday to accelerate the donation to other countries of vaccines against covid-19 due to the expansion of the omicron variant, of which two cases have already been detected in USA.

In a speech explaining his strategy to deal with the pandemic this winter, Biden promised that his government will deliver 200 million more doses to other countries in the next 100 days, that is, until mid-March.

“That will put us on track to deliver more than 1.2 billion doses to the rest of the world (since the start of the pandemic),” Biden said in a speech from the headquarters of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH, in English).

So far, the United States has donated more than 275 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 110 countries, including 94 million doses to African nations, according to the White House.

However, the Biden administration has made sure to reserve more than enough doses to vaccinate its own population, which does not quite overcome skepticism about vaccines: only 59% of Americans are immunized with the full schedule, and 21% with a booster dose.

The president stressed that he will always ensure that the Americans “They are protected”Before helping other countries, but he thought that donating vaccines is not only “A moral obligation”, But rather serves to stop the proliferation of new variants that could reach your country.

“The United States is doing its part, and we will do more. But this is a global pandemic and we need to fight it together. And that includes helping countries that are not particularly friendly with us ”, said Biden, whose government has sent, for example, vaccines to Nicaragua, despite political tensions.

Biden thanked South Africa for notifying “quickly”To the world of the appearance of the omicron variant, by ensuring that “Encourage and applaud” that kind of transparency that allows the pandemic to be contained.

The president also reiterated that the United States will require from next Monday all travelers who travel to its territory to present a negative test for coronavirus in the 24 hours prior to their flight, regardless of their vaccination status or country of departure, before the new omicron variant.

After detecting the first confirmed case of the omicron variant in the United States on Wednesday in California, an individual who had traveled to South Africa, the Minnesota authorities announced this Thursday a second contagion.

This is a Minnesota resident who had traveled to New York City to attend the Anime NYC 2021 convention, which was attended by 53,000 people between November 19 and 21, who was vaccinated and developed “Mild symptoms”Of covid-19 that have already been resolved.

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