The Biden administration is working with Pfizer to double its order to deliver the pill that greatly reduces the risk of hospitalization and death due to Covid from 10 million to 20 million treatment courses in the months ahead.
Announcing this Tuesday before a meeting with members of the White House Covid-19 Response Team on the latest developments related to the Omicron variant, President Joe Biden said, “These pills are going to dramatically decrease hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19. They’re a game-changer and have the potential to dramatically alter the impact of Covid-19 — the impact it’s had on this country and our people”.
Biden said that on Christmas Eve, the administration shipped out the first batch of these pills it purchased from the pharmaceutical giant. And more will be shipped this week.
He said that although the new medicine is already saving lives, due to the complex chemistry of the pills, it takes months to make a pill.
“But production is in full swing. The United States has more pills than any other country in the world. And our supply is going to ramp up over the coming months as more of these pills are manufactured,” he told reporters.
Biden took these measures as the Omicron variant is super spreading in the United States.
A whopping 869187 new cases were reported in the country on Tuesday, raising the national total to 57,096,954, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.
It is the second highest daily infection toll, recorded a day after an all-time world record number of 1 million new Covid cases were reported in the U.S.
The weekly average of Covid cases in the U.S. skyrocketed by 254 percent in two weeks, driven by the more easily transmitted Omicron variant.
With 2384 additional casualties, the total Covid death toll has risen to 830,375.
Florida reported the most number of cases – 194000 – on Tuesday, while Ohio led in casualties, 227.
Hospitalizations increased by 51 percent in a fortnight, to 105,139.
41,901,183 people in the country have recovered from the disease so far.
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