President Biden on Tuesday will lay out his new plan to tackle the dominant new COVID-19 Omicron variant, including deploying military medical personnel and other health resources to strained hospitals, strongly encouraging unvaccinated Americans to get inoculated and vaccinated Americans to get a booster shot, and sending 500 million free at-home rapid COVID-19 tests to U.S. households, White House officials said Monday night, previewing Biden's Tuesday afternoon speech.
The Biden administration has been cool to the idea of mailing out COVID tests to households, and Biden announced earlier this month an alternate plan for health insurers to reimburse people for tests they buy at stores. That plan will still go into effect on Jan. 15, ABC News reports, though at-home tests are running out at pharmacies and retailers as the Omicron explosion runs into pre-Christmas preparations.
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