US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday, 21 December, that 500 million free at-home rapid tests will provided to residents by January to combat the Omicron variant, Reuters reported.
Additionally, in light of the new variant which is spreading rapidly all over the world, the government will establish more federal vaccination and testing sites.
Biden, while saying that he understands that the people are tired and frustrated, warned that "we should all be concerned about Omicron, but not panicked."
He added that the unvaccinated have "good reason to be concerned," while fully vaccinated people can enjoy the holiday season.
Omicron, which the WHO has labelled as a "variant of concern", now accounts for 73 percent of cases in the US.
Infections are doubling in 1.5 to 3 days.
The number of COVID-19 patients who have been hospitalised in the US has increased by 27 percent this month.
Many hospitals, however, are still dealing with the havoc caused by the Delta variant.
Experts say that it is not possible to stop the spread of Omicron, and the objective must be to prevent the hospitals from getting overwhelmed by cases.
Dr Luciana Borio, a scientist who used to work for the Food and Drug Administration, said that "the main goal, really, is to prevent people from losing their health and straining hospitals, delaying cancer care and surgeries for people who need it, delaying health care worker burnout," the New York Times reported.
The US has reported more than 51 million infections and around 810,000 COVID deaths, more than any other country in the world.
(With inputs from Reuters and NYT)
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