Via Teleconference
12:32 P.M. EST
MR. ZIENTS: Hi, everybody. It's Jeff Zients. Good afternoon. And thank you for joining us. We're doing this in a different format today due to the Summit for Democracy. So we'll host this as a phone briefing.
Today, Dr. Walensky will provide an update on the Omicron cases in the U.S. and around the world, and Dr. Fauci will show the latest science on what we know about this new variant.
First, I'll start with the President's aggressive plan to combat COVID and get people maximum protection this winter.
As we've heard over and over from the doctors, vaccines remain our best line of defense against COVID. So, our message is straightforward: The best thing you can do if you're concerned about Omicron is to get boosted if you were fully vaccinated before June, get your kids vaccinated, get yourself vaccinated if you haven't already, and encourage your friends and family members to do the same.
And more and more Americans are stepping up to do just that. Just in the last week, we've gotten 12.5 million total shots in arms. That's the highest weekly total of number of shots since May — so, seven months ago — 12.5 million total shots in arms last week.
So, we're now vaccinating people in numbers that we haven't seen since the spring. And that's critical progress as we head into the winter and confront the new Omicron variant.
The President's winter plan builds on this momentum, starting with getting more people a booster shot.
In the last week, we've gotten nearly 7 million people a booster; that's a million booster shots in arms a day. And that's more people getting a booster shot per day than ever before.
So, people are responding to the doctors' clear message that boosters give you the highest protection yet and that you should go get your booster shot as soon as possible.
To meet the growing demand, the President's plan maximizes booster operations and outreach. And we're already working across the federal government and with governors, pharmacies, and other partners to execute.
So, for example, just this week, 14 million Medicare enrollees will receive a reminder email about boosters.
Connecticut is reaching its hardest-hit communities through mobile, pop-up clinics.
New Hampshire is standing up 15 community-based booster sites this Saturday as part of the state's "Operation Booster Blitz."
Walmart, Albertsons, and other pharmacies are offering millions of walk-in booster shots. And Walgreens has already made half a million calls to seniors to remind them to get their booster.
So, we're making significant progress here, especially in getting boosters to our most vulnerable population: seniors. The majority of eligible seniors have now gotten a booster — 55 percent of eligible seniors are boosted — with more and more seniors becoming eligible and getting their booster shot each and every day.
A new survey from LeadingAge, which represents more than 5,000 service providers, showed that 91 percent of nursing home facilities and 82 percent of housing and service providers have completed their booster clinics.
At the same time as we get seniors and others boosted, millions of families across the country are entering the holiday season with a huge sense of relief because of our effective rollout of vaccines for kids.
In fact, today, we'll hit 5 million kids ages 5 through 11 with at least their first shot. Five million kids with their first shot — that's a major milestone in our effort to keep our kids safe and our schools open.
The President's plan doubles down on making it even more convenient for parents to get their kids and themselves the shots they need. This includes launching hundreds of new [family] vaccination clinics at community health centers and other trusted locations around the country.
These one-stop shops will offer vaccinations for the whole family at the same time and same place. Parents will be able to get their first, second, or booster shots, and get their kids vaccinated all at once.
Already Minnesota, New York, and New Jersey have announced they will also launch these family vaccination clinics. And FEMA is deploying mobile family vaccination clinics to New Mexico and Washington State to reach parents and kids in high-risk communities.
I recently heard a story that illustrates the power of these efforts. Earlier this fall in Little Rock, Arkansas, 11-year-old Shiloh Crawford went with his mom to a community festival where she was working. Shiloh had been wanting his mom to get vaccinated, so when he saw there was a vaccination clinic at the festival, he asked her to go to the clinic.
And together with community members, Shiloh helped answer his mom's questions about getting vaccinated and convinced her to get vaccinated — holding her hand as she got her first shot.
More recently, Shiloh and his sister got their own first shots at a school-based clinic accompanied by their fully vaccinated mom.
That's what families do. They look out for one another. They protect one another. And through family vaccination clinics, we're making it easier for them to get protected together.
Before I close, I want to share a brief update on our work to vaccinate the world. Under President Biden's leadership, we've committed to donating 1.2 billion doses to the world.
Today, we hit a major milestone in our effort to deliver on that commitment: Over 300 million doses donated and shipped to 110 countries.
To put American leadership and generosity into context, for every vaccine-eligible person in America today, we have now donated about one dose to another country.
The President's winter plan set an aggressive goal for acceleration: 200 million doses shipped to the world in 100 days. And we're making important progress to meet this goal.
In fact, since the President's announcement on Thursday, we've gotten nearly 20 million doses packed and shipped to countries in need.
Let me close with this: We have more tools than ever before to confront COVID and Omicron and to continue making progress in our fight against the virus.
And across the board, we're executing on the President's winter plan to use every tool at our disposal to keep people safe, our schools open, and the economy growing.
With that, over to Dr. Walensky.
DR. WALENSKY: Thank you so much, Jeff. And good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to start by walking you through today's data.
The current seven-day average of cases is about 103,800 per day. And the seven-day average of hospital admissions is about 6,800 per day. The seven-day average of daily deaths is about 1,100 per day.
At CDC and across the government, we continue to remain focused on our efforts to address both the Delta and the now Omicron variants.
It's important to underscore that while much of the news is focused on the new Omicron variant — where we continue to learn more each day — I want to reiterate that our updated Nowcast from late last week continues to demonstrate that over 99 percent of sequenced cases in the United States continue to be from the Delta variant.
Right now, there are reports of Omicron cases in over 50 countries. And here in the U.S., there are confirmed cases in 19 states, and we expect that number to continue to increase.
State and local public health authorities, in collaboration with the CDC, are actively investigating confirmed and possible cases, conducting contact tracing, and implementing prevention strategies to help slow the spread of this new variant.
In our efforts to both understand the new Omicron variant and work to protect Americans against disease as it spreads, CDC is taking the necessary steps to remain prepared and equipped.
CDC staff are available 24/7, as they have been throughout this entire pandemic, to provide in-person and remote technical support for the public health response to the Omicron variant, including investigations of the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of Omicron or other SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Between November 26th and December 6th, CDC has had an in-depth collaboration with more than 25 jurisdictions related to suspected and confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.
CDC is communicating closely with state and jurisdictional partners, and addressing specific requests for technical assistance as the highest priority. CDC has teams of experts ready to deploy to jurisdictions across the country to conduct outbreak investigations and provide epidemiologic and technical support when requested.
