Last week President Biden unveiled a national strategy to deal with COVID-19 especially in light of the emergent omicron variant here in the United States.
In the plan that the President unveiled there is a lot in the announcement the president made. There are four different specific components to this winter plan.
First travel
With domestic travel of planes, trains, buses and all forms of public transportation the mask mandate has been extended through March 18th.
The TSA will continue to enforce the mask mandate and will double their fine for non compliance. When looking at international travelers, all international travelers including American citizens who are entering the United States regardless of vaccination status starting next week must start providing a negative COVID-19 test within one day of travel.
All non-United States citizens entering the United States must also provide proof of vaccination.
Second boosters
Starting off all federal employees will receive paid time off to get their booster and the President is asking private employers to do the same.
The White House also announced more access to those booster shots through your local pharmacies, newly set up family vaccination centers, the nearly 80,000 vaccination centers around the country, and the new partnership with AARP to reach out to boost senior citizens.
Third testing
The President wants to add free at-home COVID-19 tests for those who are not insured by a private insurance company; free at-home tests will be distributed through rural clinics, health centers and communities.
For those of you with private insurance the Biden Administration says you’ll be able to be reimbursed by your insurance company for buying those at home tests.
The Biden Administration says that the details on how this program works and how to be reimbursed won’t be available until early next month.
Fourth Vaccines
The White House has announced 1.2 billion vaccine doses will be donated to other countries to try and slow the mutations and the spread of COVID-19.
As for the vaccine mandates the President says he is not announcing any new vaccine mandates at this time.
This comes as a federal vaccine mandate that we all know about continues to work through the court systems. The President is encouraging private companies to implement their own vaccine mandates.
Legal experts say the President is doing this because your employer can implement vaccine mandates. The Court system is currently deciding if the federal government can implement vaccine mandates.
