New York reported a rise in hospitalizations of children due to the coronavirus, While the Omicron variant continues to spread through the United States, while the White House promised this Sunday to solve the shortage of covid-19 tests.
The New York State Department of Health “closely monitors an upward trend in pediatric hospitalizations associated with COVID-19,” according to a statement released Friday.
“The biggest increase concerns New York City, with revenues that have quadrupled” between the week of December 5 and December 19, the local government said. Half of this income corresponds to children under 5 years of age, who are not yet of the age to be vaccinated.
The number of covid-19 cases continues to increase dramatically in the United States due to the spread of the Omicron variant, with an average of more than 175,000 new infections daily in the last week, according to data from the CDC, the main federal agency for public health.
Against this background, there is a shortage of covid-19 tests in the country, which coincides with an especially high demand for tests, in particular for kits to be carried out at home, on the occasion of the end of the year holidays.
“One of the problems right now is that (the tests) will not be fully available to everyone until January,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House adviser in the fight against the pandemic.
“We are addressing the problem of tests and, very soon, that will be solved,” the epidemiologist told ABC, also acknowledging his frustration at this shortage.
Such coincident events are partly responsible for the “high demand” and the consequent shortage of evidence, according to Fauci.
“Obviously we have to do better,” he said.
President Joe Biden announced last week that the federal government has purchased some 500 million kits that will be given free to anyone who requests them.
But these tests will only be available in January, fueling strong criticism against the White House, whose strategy to combat COVID-19 has focused primarily on vaccination.
On December 6, days after Ómicron’s presence in the United States was first detected, to questions from the press, the presidential spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, limited herself to replying: “We should send all Americans a free trial, truth?”.
Referring to the characteristics of Ómicron, Fauci indicated this Sunday that it is an “extraordinarily contagious” variant, but cited studies carried out in South Africa and the United Kingdom that seem to indicate that the cases are less dangerous.
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