I head to New Hampshirethis Fridayto kick things off.Whether we are working to strengthen mental health, behavioral health; whether were authorizing therapeutics or distributing vaccines at HHS, we bring our unique capabilities and expertise to the mission. This month alone the month of March well have 1 million of these treatment courses available. You do not need to schedule a PCR test unless required by your employer, school, etc. All of these efforts are with a vision for not just COVID, but also to address any future infectious and non-infectious public health threats.As we continue to move forward from this pandemic, Im confident that CDC and our public health partners are well positioned to use our surveillance and our data to lead the way.Thank you. ZIENTS: On Secretary Becerra, Ill go first. This ongoing research investment is not only helping us turn the corner on COVID-19 but also is vital to preparing us for future pandemics. Well each deliver some remarks, and then open it up for questions.As President Biden said in last nights State of the Union address, weve reached a new moment in the fight against COVID-19.Because of the significant progress weve made as a country, the determination and resilience of the American people, and the work weve done to make tools to protect ourselves widely available, we are moving forward safely, getting back to our more normal routines. Reliant patients can now use MyChart* to self-schedule a COVID-19 test at our Auburn or Marlboro drive-thru testing Reliant is a multi-specialty medical group caring for patients throughout Central and MetroWest Massachusetts. ZIENTS: Dr. Walensky, first.DR. We appreciate your cooperation. If You Test Positive for COVID-19 (Isolate). I would just add on to what Dr. Fauci said that, you know, over the past year, weve made significant progress and are in a very different position than we were when President Biden took office, with 215 million people fully vaccinated; two out of three eligible adults boosted; multiple treatment options, which weve talked about today, including millions of lifesaving pills; free at-home testing; 400 million high-quality masks going out for free. And well create new stockpiles of tests, pills, and masks so we have the tools ready to deploy if we need them. To protect the American people and our economy, we must defeat the virus everywhere. These treatments work to prevent the worst outcomes of COVID-19. We will also launch new support for people dealing with mental health-related challenges, including an expanded program to prevent job burnout and support the mental wellbeing of our nations healthcare workforce. You have JavaScript disabled. With continued expansion, we now have 647 testing sites publicly reporting on COVID Data Tracker, and we are onboarding new sites each week. With that, let me turn it over to Jeff. Consider visiting one of our in-person ReadyMED walk-in care locations instead. But what were focusing on first is a pan-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which means a vaccine that would be highly effective against ancestral strain Alpha, Beta, Delta, Omicron or any future SARS-CoV-2 that we might experience. We are still in a situation right now where, as you know, we have about 68,000 cases. The University is providing updates on a daily basis regarding COVID-19. And two out of three eligible adults now have booster shots, which provide the strongest protection.In fact, if youre vaccinated and boosted, you have an extremely high level of protection against COVID, and its extremely unlikely youll end up in the hospital if you do get the virus. Well further expand our research and ramp up our data-sharing across the federal government, in collaboration with academic, industry, and state and local partners. For information about antibody testing, click here. If you test positive on a home antigen test, you are considered COVID-19 positive. FAUCI: Thanks, Dr. Walensky.As Jeff said, vaccines and treatments are key parts of our toolkit moving forward. We started in early January. Would you like to opt out of this tracking?

They will be provided a surgical mask when they arrive to their Reliant appointment. MODERATOR: Lets go to Zeke Miller at the AP.Q Thanks for doing this. Once you get a particular candidate that fulfills certain criteria, then, if you asked me that question again, Sheryl, I could give you an approximation of how long it would take. High-risk patients or those who meet certain criteriamay seekmonoclonal antibody therapy (mAb). I want to ask about one-way masking, since that seems to be the advice for anyone who isnt ready to take their mask off yet and particularly kids under five or immunocompromised people. ZIENTS: On the federal workforce and the workforce more generally: Throughout the pandemic, more than 4 million federal employees had been very hard at work protecting our country and providing critical services. But its also because of the massive amount of vaccination weve been doing, the massive amount of boosting weve been doing, as well as the protection that we can get from our therapeutics in this moment. This is all part of our commitment to be there for Americans who have long-term physical and mental health needs caused by COVID. But now that it is permanently housed here at HHS, youll continue to see much of the execution, once the plans are in place and the President gives a signal, emanating from HHS, as you can see from the presentations today. And weve ordered 20 million courses.As the President announced last night, Pfizer worked overtime to further accelerate delivery. As it has from the beginning, fairness for everyone equity will remain at the center of our work.Weve already seen the power of this intentional approach. The plan lays out how were going to keep working with governors, state and local health officials, and community partners to get even more shots in arms.Importantly, we know parents of children under the age of five are eager to provide their kids the protection of a vaccine.The Presidents plan ensures that as soon as a vaccine is authorized, well be ready with plenty of vaccines and prepared to help parents vaccinate their youngest kids at thousands of trusted and convenient locations across the country.In addition to vaccines and boosters, we have filled our nations medicine cabinet with effective treatments and therapeutics: monoclonal antibodies, antiviral pills, and preventive therapies for our most vulnerable. We now offer more patient visits virtually through telephone and video appointments. And we have more treatments available for the American people than ever before millions of treatments each month.Pfizers pill is a gamechanger 90 percent effective at keeping people out of the hospital.We collaborated with Pfizer to accelerate development of the pill. WALENSKY: Yeah, I want to just comment, Sheryl, that the qualitative how these cases are in February or March of 2022 is just very different than where we were in June of 2021. The University of Florida and the Stephen C. OConnell Center are closely monitoring COVID-19. FAUCI: Well, you know, when you say emergency emergency means different things to different people. Masks will be available at the entrances of our buildings and at our check-in desks. So Im wondering: Is there a threshold of daily cases at which you would feel comfortable recommending that the travel mask mandate be lifted? And then we have all of the systems that we talked about our wastewater system; our syndromic surveillance system; our genomic surveillance system; our enhanced genomic surveillance system, which is how we found a case of Omicron within days of knowing that it existed in other countries. If a new variant emerges, were able to catch it earlier, faster, and with greater precision.And when we do detect a new variant, well be ready to respond quickly.We have a COVID-19 variant playbook to rapidly assess a variants transmissibility and severity, and its potential impact on vaccines and treatment.Weve put it to the test over the past few weeks with tabletop readiness and response exercises against a fictional variant with HHS, CDC, NIH, FDA, FEMA, and other agencies at the table.If needed, we have developed plans and processes that we can produce, authorize, and deliver new vaccines and treatments in just 100 days rather than in many months or years. Thanks.MR. Stephen C. OConnell Center Related to the masks, leads to another question what about Title 42 that is in effect as a public health emergency? If you are COVID positive, click here for information about isolation, treatment options and ways to keep other around you healthy. Testing at Reliant is by appointment and is only available for Reliant patients. Then theres the beta-coronaviruses, which include not only SARS-CoV-2 but SARS-CoV-1, MERS, and others, and they are in another category of the beta-coronaviruses. But right now, were making good progress. So the President was very clear, as Dr. Fauci said, that we need to be prepared for any possible variant and invest in the next level the next generation of treatments and vaccines.Funding from Congress will be critical for these efforts so well be working very closely with Capitol Hill going forward.MR. We will need additional funding beyond these immediate needs to effectively execute on the medium- and longer-term priorities and policies in todays plan. That said, I will also say that we will be revisiting the the March in the middle of March, the testing the travel the masking for travel order, and more to come on that. All patients and visitors must wear a surgical mask at all times while in our offices and sanitize their hands upon entry. We have closed disparities in vaccination rates for Black, Latino, and Asian American adults. If You Were Exposed to Someone with COVID-19 (Quarantine). These robust sequencing efforts mean we can reliably identify very low levels of variants, even variants that account for as little as 0.1 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the United States.Finally, we continue to invest in and scale up our data modernization efforts, which improve COVID-19 data collection, reporting, analysis, and interoperability so America is better informed and ready to respond to whatever may come next. Dr. Walensky, on masking?DR. Second was . To find a vaccine site near you, visit www.vaxfinder.mass.gov. Can you speak broadly to what else can be done to move us past the emergency stage of the pandemic?

In terms of schools: As we released last Friday, we are confident in our guidance from last Friday that schools can now follow the COVID-19 community levels in terms of their masking recommendations. For more information, please check http://www.ufl.edu/health-updates/, The Southeastern Conference has announced that all sports scheduled from March 12 March 30 have been suspended. But all of thats changed.Today, we have the tools we need to protect each other and treat COVID-19. ZIENTS: Next question, please.MODERATOR: Emma Court at Bloomberg.Q Hi, thanks for holding this. The White House ZIENTS: Yeah. ZIENTS: Okay, why dont I take the first question, which was on domestic air travel. Last month, CDC publicly released our National Wastewater Surveillance data. President Biden made that clear last night. PO Box 115850 We are coming down in the right direction. And that is because of all the tools that we have now. By connecting data from local public health to our national systems, we work to collect the data today that we will need to answer the critical questions of tomorrow.These data can then be used by CDCs Forecast Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics to forecast and model our public health threats and inform our prevention recommendations.

So why dont we turn it to Dr. Walensky on the masking questions and then Ill handle the federal workforce. A couple of questions. So, thank you, everybody.11:30 A.M. EST. Thats four times as many doses shipped as any other country.The Presidents plan includes continuing to donate more vaccines and doubling down on efforts to turn those vaccines into vaccinations.Were going to help get shots in arms around the world by supporting public education efforts, providing vaccinators in the field, and setting up vaccination sites. With that, I will turn it back over to you, Jeff. Additionally, I noticed that Secretary Becerra is here at this briefing as you all move from a crisis footing to more of a long-term management mode. MR. ZIENTS: schools with low transmission. Looking for more options? We're redirecting you to the MyChart account creation page in 5 seconds. Suite 2110 ZIENTS: Next question.MODERATOR: Last question. For more information on the COVID-19 vaccine, please visit: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/faq.html. We continue to scale up these efforts and are grateful for the resources from Congress to be able to do so.MR. As Ive said before, Secretary Becerra has been an essential partner throughout the COVID response, and that work continues going forward. We have great collaborations globally so that if a variant were to of concern were to emerge globally, we are in touch globally. ZIENTS: Next question, please. Need a COVID-19 test? CDC is working with state, county, and city jurisdictions to transform independent, local surveillance efforts into a robust, sustainable national system.And, we continue to build and strengthen our global collaborations and communication networks to better understand and respond to COVID-19 variants as they emerge. And we will continue to address the specific needs of seniors, people living with disabilities, and people who are immunocompromised. Under the leadership of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn OConnell, she and her team at H-CORE build on the successful partnership HHS has had with our dedicated colleagues at DOD, as well as our state and local partners.Through it, we have delivered more than 690 million doses of vaccines and 4 million treatments to families nationwide.To date, we have distributed more than 270 million free N95 masks to local pharmacies and community health centers and helped get free COVID tests to 70 million households.No matter what the future holds, H-CORE must be ready, and Americans deserve to know that we have the infrastructure in place to get critical services and supplies where they are needed.Another key goal of the Presidents plan moving forward is to address the long-term impacts of COVID, including Long COVID and mental health.As the President said last night, his plan directs the federal government to accelerate its efforts to detect, prevent, and treat Long COVID, building on our ongoing work, already, at NIH. WALENSKY: Yeah, thank you for that question, Jeremy. SECRETARY BECERRA: Ill only add that, from the beginning, the President put together a team, and thats the way its continued to work. Thats why weve put in place many safety precautions in our medical offices to reduce the risk of illness spread. And together, with the leadership of governors and local health officials, the innovation of the private sector, and the determination of the American people, we have made tremendous progress.Weve delivered the tools Americans need to protect themselves, reopened our schools, and gotten our economy moving again.The Presidents Plan will build on that progress. As we finalize these numbers, we will communicate that with Congress and look forward to working closely with Congress going forward. First, to Dr. Walensky, were still at about 60,000 cases a day, which is more than five times the low of June 2021. And weve safely reopened schools, helping our most vulnerable students have more equitable access to learning and easing the burden on working parents across rural and urban areas.Tackling barriers to vaccinations, boosters, testing, and treatments remains a priority for us. These are the Americans who need our focus and attention right now. In fact, weve already shipped 480 million doses in total to 112 countries for free no strings attached. Across the coming weeks, the vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person. We are now offering pediatric COVID-19 vaccination for Reliant primary care patients ages 6 months 11 years old. If your browser does not automatically redirect, please click the link below.

Opt in to send and receive text messages from President Biden. When given in a timely manner, mAb has been shown to be effective in reducing the severity of disease and keeping COVID-19-positive patients out of the hospital. Its the empty chair at the dinner table or the open seat in the bleachers, the quiet homes, and the crowded hospitals.Thats why this administration will coordinate a whole-of-government effort to support children and families who have experienced the loss of a loved one due to COVID. Its both the right thing to do and it is in our own national interest.Under President Biden, the United States has led the global vaccination effort. So when you ask about pan-coronavirus, thats quite aspirational. Washington, DC 20500.

This adds to the National Syndromic Surveillance Program, which collects data on COVID-19 emergency visits from over 70 percent of emergency departments across the country to anticipate where cases are increasing.Second, we are expanding our capacity ingenomic surveillance so that we can readily detect variants of concern or interest.Each week, CDC analyzes genomic sequences from all 50 states and uses these sequences to understand and map the spread of variants across the country, oftensequencing tens of thousands of viral samples in a given week. MR. ZIENTS: Well, thank you, Secretary.Now, moving to the second goal of the Presidents plan: preparing for any new variants. Learn more HERE, Many companies and federal, state and municipal offices are requiring employees to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. Please enable JavaScript to use this feature. And because of this progress and the widely available nature of these tools, weve reached a new moment in the fight with COVID-19.Today, we are in a position to move forward safely and to get back to our more normal routines.

And then, for Dr. Fauci, Im interested in the likelihood of a universal coronavirus vaccine. Now, let me turn to Dr. Walensky to provide more detail on CDCs work to improve and expand tracking and monitoring of COVID variants.And then over to Dr. Fauci to discuss NIHs work to support the development of new treatments and next-generation vaccines.Dr. Mask Requirements and Screenings at Entry Points, If You or Someone You Know is Sick or Had Contact with Someone Who Has COVID-19, High-risk patients or those who meet certain criteria, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/faq.html, If you have or think you might have COVID-19, What To Do If You Are Positive for COVID-19, Myths and Facts about the COVID-19 Vaccine, A Message from Our Chief Medical Officer (Spanish), A Message from Our Chief Medical Officer (Portuguese). We are in that situation where we can do that. We are working intensively on that discovery phase. Are you shifting primary management of COVID to HHS from the White House?MR. Gainesville, FL 32611, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, Stephen C. OConnell Center Policy Manual, https://floridagators.com/news/2020/3/12/general-sec-regular-season-and-sec-championship-competition-suspended.aspx.