By SudOuest.fr with AFP
On the occasion of the end of the year family celebrations, the United States experienced a real scramble for tests, especially for kits to test yourself at home, causing a shortage
The shortage of Covid-19 tests observed in the United States will soon be resolved, assured Dr.Anthony Fauci, senior White House adviser in the fight against the pandemic, on Sunday, as the country observes an outbreak of case due to the Omicron variant. “One of the problems right now is that (the tests) won’t be fully available to everyone until January,” the epidemiologist told ABC.
“But we are tackling the problem of testing, and that, very soon, will be fixed,” he continued, also acknowledging his frustration with this shortage. At the same time, the number of Covid-19 cases continues to rise sharply due to the spread of Omicron, with an average of more than 175,000 new cases per day on Sunday, over the last seven days, according to data from the main federal public health agency.
These coinciding events are partly responsible for this “high demand” resulting in the shortage of tests, according to Dr Fauci. “We obviously have to do better,” he said.
Delivery mid-January
President Joe Biden resolved last week to announce massive purchases of tests by the federal government: 500 million kits, which will be distributed free of charge to whoever requests them. But these tests will not be delivered until January, which fuels strong criticism against the White House, whose strategy to fight Covid-19 has for weeks been mainly focused on vaccination.
Omicron’s proportion hovers around 95% of cases in one group of northwestern states (Oregon, Washington, and Idaho) and another in the southeast, including Florida.
US executive spokeswoman Jen Psaki was questioned on December 6, days after Omicron was first detected in the United States, about the difficulty of accessing tests. She just ironed, “We should send all Americans a free test, right?” “
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