WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Monday pledged to ease a shortage of COVID-19 tests as the Omicron variant threatened to overwhelm hospitals and stifle travel plans as it spread across U.S. states this holiday week.
“Seeing how tough it was for some folks to get a test this weekend shows that we have more work to do,” Biden said as he joined a call with the administration’s COVID-19 response team and state governors. “It’s clearly not enough.”
Biden said his administration’s steps include using the Defense Production Act to boost at-home test manufacturing and making it easier to use the Google search engine to find a nearby testing location.
U.S. and state officials are bracing for a wave of more cases following the Christmas holiday, with hospitalizations ticking up as New Year’s loomed.
Rising cases snarled air travel over Christmas weekend, with thousands of flights canceled as flight crews contracted the virus. Curtailed cruises and limited availability of testing crimped other plans as the more transmissible variant took hold.
On Monday, U.S. airlines canceled nearly 1,000 flights, the fourth straight day of cancellations, denting travel-related stocks. Still, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 stock index was set to end at a record high as strong holiday retail sales offset economic worries.
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