The White House has revealed its new Covid strategy for the next phase of how the United States handles the pandemic. The National Covid Preparedness Plan includes a “test to treat” approach as part of the new road map for how to live with Covid.
The test-to-treat involves an expedited approach to treatments, including Paxlovid, by allowing pharmacies to be able to issue prescriptions immediately for anyone who tests positive for Covid. It was the part of the strategy that President Joe Biden highlighted in his State of the Union address earlier this week.
Ensuring people feel safe enough to return to work and resuming pre-pandemic activities appears central to Biden’s administration’s objectives.
The new plan also ensures that when a vaccine is authorized for children under the age of five, the government will be able to distribute the vaccination quickly to make it convenient across the United States.
Vaccines, treatments, testings, and masks. These are the tools to move into a new normal in this stage of the pandemic, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters. He said these tools will allow the country to move forward safely and go back to normal lives, including eating at restaurants, traveling once again, having playdates, attending sporting events, seeing movies, and going to concerts.
The ability to track cases and detect potential new variants has greatly improved in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will help with the new strategy.
Additional funding from Congress will be required to fulfill the plan. The exact amount was not specified, but Zients said that he has briefed bipartisan leaders in Congress about near-term funding that will be required, and that final figures will be finalized by the administration in the coming few weeks.
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