White House Press Secretary said at Wednesday's press briefing that the administration had 'saved Christmas' – in a nod to an easing in supply chain issues and a possible dig at the media, which has chronicled the crisis.
She said Americans can go to stocked shelves to purchase last-minute Christmas gifts – although given the surge in coronavirus infections, many Americans find themselves lined up for antigen tests rather than big box purchases.
'Good news, we've saved Christmas,' quipped Psaki at the top of her daily briefing with the press – in a room that featured a smattering of empty seats amid the outbreak of the Omicron variant.
Psaki may have been needling members of the press over breathless coverage of empty shelves this fall, as long lines of cargo ships were backed up in ports including Long Beach, Ca. with days-long delays getting containers unloaded and not enough drivers to move it.
'Good news, we've saved Christmas,' said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Wednesday, as she announced shelves were stocked in retail stores. But the holiday season is also being plagued by an increase in coronavirus cases, with long lines for testing
Earlier Wednesday, she scolded Scrooges and doubters as she announced retail shelves were 90 per cent stocked.
'Take that Scrooge, the Grinch and all of the doubters that this could happen,' she jabbed.
After her quip about saving Christmas, Psaki touted administration efforts to ease the backlog.
'And that is because President Biden recognized this challenge early acted as an honest broker to bring key stakeholders together and focused on addressing practical problems across the global supply chain,' she said.
She pointed to key 'points of progress,' including the number of containers sitting on the docks at the ports of LA and Long Beach for over eight days falling by nearly half.
'The average amount of time containers sit on docks has fallen by a week. The price of shipping a container between Asia and the West Coast has fallen by more than 25 per cent since its peak in September, and as the president also referenced the stocks on shelves is it about 90 per cent – retail stocks on shelves at about 90% inventory,' on par with where it was pre-pandemic.
Six year-old Brielle Peare uses a microphone to talk to Santa Claus, who sits sealed inside a store display window behind glass as virus prevention measure at the Primark store in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday
'So people can go purchase presents even at this point if they haven't done their shopping,' she said.
Even with shelves stocked, Americans are bracing for yet another uneasy holiday season. The Omicron variant has rapidly spread to count for the vast majority of new cases.
People are lined up for coronavirus testing in New York and numerous other locations amid a testing shortage.
Despite the administration not calling for shutdowns, school districts like those in Prince Georges County, Md. are sending students home early for the holidays, sometimes for nearly a month.
Hospitals in hot spots have been clearing away elective surgeries amid the ongoing Delta surge in infections and hospitalizations.
President Biden on Tuesday announced a new plan to provide 500 million rapid tests to Americans.
But Psaki was unable to announce a contract had been inked, or basic rules for how many tests each household can get. The web site won't go up until the first tests are shipped to the government in January, she said.
One top expert Dr. Scott Gotlieb warned that the effort came too late.
'Look, we should have been doing this all along,' the ex-FDA commissioner said on CNBC.
'We should've been trying to get more at-home tests available and giving them away to consumers and in drug stores, you know, allowing consumers to come into a drug store, buy maybe four tests for $5, some small price and limiting the number of sales they can get, but making sure they got into the hands of consumers. That's what other countries are doing,' he said.
Omicron now accounts for 73 percent of new cases in the US and pushes Europe to the brink of fresh lockdowns. New York, Georgia and Texas are all seeing major surges in new COVID cases, which are up more than 100 percent in the past two weeks in those states. Florida now leads the nation with cases up 371 percent in the past two weeks.
The nation is currently averaging 148,384 new cases daily over the past week, a 23 percent increase from two weeks ago. Confirmed Omicron cases increased by 19 percent day-over-day, up to 1,781 as of Wednesday morning from 1,485 on Tuesday, but that number represents only the tiny fraction of infections that are DNA sequenced.
Biden earlier Wednesday said warnings that supply chain disruptions could foil the plans of Christmas shoppers didn't occur.
He touted increased store inventories and reductions in backlogs at critical ports, in a message timed for the holidays.
'Earlier this fall, we heard a lot of dire warnings about supply chain problems leading to a crisis around the holidays,' Biden said during a virtual meeting of his supply chain task force at the White House.
'The much predicted crisis didn't occur. Packages are movie gifts are being delivered. Shelves are not empty,' Biden said.
'The much predicted crisis didn't occur,' President Joe Biden said Wednesday as he met with his supply chain task force and announced store shelves were 90 percent stocked
The president himself had called attention to problems in supply chains, and said he couldn't promise every gift would be delivered on time. He touted administration actions to expand hours at ports and encourage hiring for more truck drivers.
Tomorrow, the administration plans to hand out more funding awards to expand ports.
But he said a turnaround had occurred.
'Today, retail inventories are up 3 per cent from last year. inventories are healthy and on
