President Biden is reportedly planning to deploy 1,000 military medical personnel to six states as part of the omicron plan he will outline on Thursday.
The personnel will help triage patients at hospitals in Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island as the country sees more than 780,000 infections per day and hospitalizations reach an all-time peak, according to The New York Times.
The deployment adds to the 800 federal personnel, including 350 military doctors and nurses, who were sent to two dozen states after omicron was detected around Thanksgiving.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deanne Criswell, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are expected to join Mr. Biden for his White House speech on the virus.
The president is offering another update as fast-moving variants of the coronavirus drag down his presidency. Administration officials say they are deploying every tool in their arsenal, including booster shots and groundbreaking antiviral drugs, to stem the winter wave, though hospitals are feeling the strain.
Mr. Biden recently tapped Tom Inglesby, an infectious diseases expert at Johns Hopkins University, to serve as his testing coordinator amid complaints that schools and everyday Americans cannot find enough COVID-19 tests.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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