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December 2, 2021 – Private insurers will soon be obliged to reimburse the costs of people recorded in their plans for home expenses, rapid tests for COVID-19 and mask mandates will be extended for air, rail and bus at least mid-March.
The measures are part of a set of new actions that President Joe Biden is expected to announce later today following the arrival of the Omicron variant in the United States. The White House’s initiatives are designed to fight the expected winter influx of COVID-19 infections, according to sources familiar with the president’s plans.
At about $ 24 per package, rapid testing for COVID-19 remains prohibitively expensive for many, even after promising to bring the tests to Americans in bulk.
In other countries, rapid tests are offered for free, or about $ 1 per test, and many experts say more frequent use of rapid tests can help stop the transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
About 150 million Americans would be eligible for reimbursement for rapid tests through their insurance plans.
In addition to these steps, international passengers flying to the United States will soon have to show evidence of a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours of departure, whether or not they have been vaccinated.
In line with the administration’s six-part plan to combat COVID-19 in August, the president’s new plan focuses on vaccinations for all eligible Americans, including booster doses for approximately 100 million adults, who are now at least six. months after their second dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or 2 months after Johnson & Johnson injection.
These plans, which relied on vaccine mandates for most workers, have been hampered by recent court rulings blocking compliance.
As the matter goes through the courts, Biden is expected to call on companies to voluntarily enforce vaccination requirements for their workers, which he says help fill in vaccination gaps.
On Thursday, Biden is also expected to outline a new impetus for booster vaccines for all adults, with a focus on reaching the adults most at risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19.
The president is expected to speak at 1:40 p.m. at the National Institutes of Health.
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