President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he'll reveal later this week his strategy to fight off COVID and its new variant Omicron this winter but indicated it won't be 'shutdowns and lockdowns.'
'On Thursday, I'll put forward a detailed strategy outline and how we're gonna fight this COVID this winter, not with shutdowns and lockdowns - with more widespread vaccination, boosters, testing and much more,' he said during a stop in Minnesota to tout his congressional agenda.
Biden didn't expand on what the 'much more' is but he said on Monday he didn't believe additional mitigation measures were needed to combat Omicron, which the World Health Organization said is highly transmissible and a 'variant of concern.'
On Thursday Biden is scheduled to visit the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Md.
He has pushed for people to get fully vaccinated and to get their booster shot to be protected against Omicron and suggested people were masks while indoors in crowded conditions.
President Joe Biden said he'll reveal later Thursday his strategy to fight off COVID and its new variant Omicron this winter
President Biden visited the Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount, Minn., to tout his infrastructure law and push his Build Back Better plan
Scientists say it will take two weeks to truly work out how effective jabs are against Omicron, which has twice as many mutations on its spike protein as Delta.
The strain is expected to make current vaccines significantly weaker at preventing infections, but it's less clear how it will impact hospitalizations and deaths.
Biden was in Minnesota to tout his infrastructure law and push the Senate to pass his Build Back Better plan.
His trip came while uncertainty over the Omicron strain of COVID grows.
Biden visited the Dakota County Technical College to highlight how his $1 trillion infrastructure law will create jobs and help train workers.
He spoke to students learning technical skills and told them: 'I used to drive a tractor-trailer.'
It's the start of a nationwide tour by his administration to promote his bipartisan victory. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Cabinet members and senior administration officials will travel across the country to tout how the infrastructure plan will benefit Americans. Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be in North Carolina on Thursday.
'Over the next several weeks, I'm going to be traveling all over the country. And so will Vice President Harris and my Cabinet and folks throughout this administration, to show how these investments are going to change your lives,' Biden said during a speech.
The president said the investments are necessary to improve the nation's aging infrastructure and to compete with China abroad.
'No more talking. Time for action,' he said to applause.
The trip comes as inflation is on the rise and the stock market tanked on concerns about the Omicron variant,
