White House announces new COVID-19 subvariant mitigation strategy

July 13, 2022 Amber Coakley US 0

FILE - White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, April 26, 2022. Speaking to the Associated Press, Jha said Americans' immune protection from the virus is waning and the virus is adapting to be more contagious, and that booster doses for most people will be necessary — with the potential for enhanced protection from a new generation of shots. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, file)

FILE – White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, April 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, file)

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UPDATED 12:26 PM PT – Wednesday, July 13, 2022

The White House announced its new strategy in tackling the latest coronavirus subvariant. On Tuesday, the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response team outlined its mitigation plan for the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the virus.

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced its strategy to manage the BA.5 Omicron subvariant ⁠– ensuring Americans continue to have easy and convenient access to vaccines, treatments, tests, and other tools that protect against and treat COVID-19. https://t.co/Z0zhIpIcro

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 12, 2022

The outline includes changes and convenient access to vaccines, boosters and treatments while providing Americans with patient awareness and increasing protection to the immunocompromised. According to the White House, the subvariants are responsible for the majority of new cases sweeping the nation.

“Given the virus and how quickly it’s evolving, it continues to pose a challenge and we have to constantly be updating these vaccines to meet what’s happening,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator. “We need a strategy to get to a very different place. The administration has been working across government on this.”

This comes after the FDA approved a second booster shot of either the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for the elderly and immunocompromised people back in March.