U.S. govt prone to request more COVID-19 trying out funds

by way of Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration is likely to request further funds from Congress for COVID-19 testing, reckoning on the severity of the Omicron variant, U.S. Secretary of fitness and Human functions Xavier Becerra spoke of on Tuesday.

The branch has $10 billion left in federal aid dollars for testing from the $50 billion made accessible via Congress again in March, but will probably want more, Becerra noted at a gathering with journalists.

"Are we going to have more than $10 billion dollars' price of wants and fees? COVID, specifically related to checking out, there's a powerful chance we are able to, depending on, once again, where Omicron takes us," he talked about.

Becerra stated he didn't know no matter if additional dollars are obligatory because health officials cannot yet predict the eventual have an impact on of Omicron.

"If we've Omicron the way we have Delta? which you can variety of see where this goes. The president noted we now have got to simply dwell forward of this. So we do not want to be asking Congress for money after we comprehend we want it."

As part of Biden's approach to fight the Omicron and Delta variants over the winter, the govt is requiring deepest fitness insurers to reimburse their a hundred and fifty million customers for the can charge of over-the-counter and at-home COVID-19 exams starting in January. The govt will now not reimburse the insurers, a White house reliable mentioned.

the U.S. will buy extra antiviral treatments within the coming months to tackle the unfold of Omicron, Becerra stated, adding that details may be introduced quickly.

"when it comes to therapeutics ... we're beefing up," he observed. "We're making an attempt to peer what Omicron does in terms of these distinctive therapeutics and what could work, and we're ginning up, we're making ready. dwell tuned for announcements on the place we can go, and it's all being dialed as we speak."

(Reporting by way of Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; modifying by means of Matthew Lewis)