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Dr. Anthony Fauci said Saturday morning that he would not be shocked to learn that the COVID-19 omicron variant is already in the U.S. In an interview on NBC's "Weekend TODAY" show, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director told co-hosts Kristen Welker and Peter Alexander that the strain has a large number of mutations that would suggest it could potentially evade immune protection and that scientists can predict it will be more transmissible. "We don't know that yet, but you have to be careful and assume that that's the case. It also has a bunch of...

The governor of New York on Friday declared a state of emergency as COVID transmission reached rates not seen since April 2020, and warned that the troubling new variant of COVID which first emerged in Botswana is 'coming'. Earlier on Friday, the US banned flights from eight Southern African countries to try and prevent the mutant strain, Omicron, from arriving. Kathy Hochul, the governor, said that all non-urgent procedures could be postponed, beginning December 3, if the hospital's capacity falls dangerously low. -snip- She also issued a 'declaration of disaster emergency', noting that COVID transmission is at a level not...

Here we go again. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Friday to postpone elective hospital surgeries — something that hasn’t been done since the worst of the initial coronavirus outbreak last year. Hochul said she made the move to deal with staffing shortages and boost bed capacity amid an anticipated “spike” in new cases and the emergence of the new Omicron variant in South Africa. The strain is named after a letter of the Greek alphabet. “We’ve taken extraordinary action to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and combat this pandemic. However, we continue to see warning signs of spikes...

No cases of the newly identified variant have been detected in New York or the rest of the United States, for that matter. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared a state of emergency ahead of potential COVID-19 spikes this winter due to the already-circulating Delta and newly-identified Omicron variants of coronavirus. The declaration, which goes into effect on Dec. 3, will allow the state to acquire pandemic-fighting supplies, increase hospital capacity and fight potential staffing shortages. It would also allow the state Health Department to limit non-essential and non-urgent procedures at hospitals. "We continue to see warning signs of...

President Biden said Friday that he delayed implementation of a new ban on travel from southern Africa on the advice of his medical advisers, who are led by Dr. Anthony Fauci. A reporter asked Biden why the emergency precaution will take effect Monday, rather than immediately to contain the potentially more contagious Omicron version of COVID-19. “Why not do it now like other countries have done?” the journalist asked Biden, who is spending a long Thanksgiving weekend in Nantucket. Biden said “because that was the recommendation coming from my medical team.” Fauci is Biden’s chief medical adviser and led a...

WH official this am: “B lockdown speech being drawn up this week…they’re planning to make it sound like one of the most solemn in history, real Bush on the night of 9/11 type stuff. Would start stocking up if I were y’all”

The White House walked back a statement regarding the possibility of enforcing new coronavirus lockdowns due to the spread of the Delta variant. On Thursday, Fox News' Peter Doocy asked White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during the daily briefing if the administration would support future COVID-19 lockdowns. Jean-Pierre replied to Doocy, saying that the Biden administration has not taken potential future lockdowns and school closures off the table. "Well we listen to it. Like I said, we listen to the CDC and the expert and their guidance are, you know, the CDC is a body that is...

President [**] Biden said Friday that Americans can “in all probability” expect to face more restrictions due to an increase in COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant, as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the White House was “looking into” mandating the vaccines before later insisting otherwise. As Biden left the White House to fly to Camp David, he was asked by CBS News if he expected more mandates to be imposed. “In all probability,” Biden responded. “By the way, we had a good day yesterday. Almost a million people got vaccinated, about half...

Joe Biden on Friday night warned Americans that new restrictions were coming, as the Delta variant causes COVID-19 caseloads across the country to soar. The president, leaving the White House for a weekend at Camp David, was asked whether new rules were likely to be introduced. 'In all probability,' he said, without expanding.

The White House is struggling with its messaging on COVID vaccines after President Joe Biden said his administration is exploring a mandate but an adviser quickly walked that back. -snip- Biden said on Thursday it was still 'a question' as to whether a national vaccine mandate would be legal but said the Justice Department was looking into it. 'I had asked the Justice Department to determine whether that is -- they're able to do that legally, and they can. Local communities can do that. Local businesses can do that. It's still a question whether the federal government can mandate the...

The White House on Friday argued it did not need to have a briefing from COVID experts amid changing face mask guidelines because President Joe Biden, a 'trusted voice,' was speaking about the matter. 'I would argue that we had the President of the United States speak to this yesterday, he gave more than 30 minute speech about where we are as a country, and he is a trusted voice, he's the leader of our country. We heard from him,' White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked why the country wasn't hearing from medical experts at this...