News reports out of South Africa noted that COVID-19 cases from omicron have resulted in mostly mild symptoms<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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MONDAY, Nov. 29, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Vaccines and masks will be the United States’ first line of defense against the new omicron variant, not lockdowns or border closures, President Joe Biden told the nation Monday.<\/p>\n
“If people are vaccinated and wear their mask, there’s no need for lockdowns,” Biden said, noting that vaccinated people who have gotten a booster shot are expected to have the best available protection against the omicron strain.<\/p>\n
Biden said the United States placed travel restrictions on southern African countries to give Americans more time to get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, but he added that more travel bans are not planned at this time. “The degree of the spread impacts on whether or not there’s a need for any travel restriction,” Biden said. “I don’t anticipate that at this point.”<\/p>\n
The Biden administration is working with vaccine makers Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson to prepare contingency plans for updated vaccines or boosters if they are needed to block the omicron variant, Biden said. The White House plans to issue later this week a “detailed strategy outlining how we’re going to fight COVID this winter, not with shutdowns or lockdowns, but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and more,” Biden said.<\/p>\n
News reports out of South Africa noted that COVID-19 cases from omicron have resulted in mostly mild symptoms. “So far they have mostly been very mild cases, with patients having flu-like symptoms: dry coughs, fever, night sweats, a lot of body pains,” Unben Pillay, M.D., a general practitioner in South Africa’s Gauteng province, said during an online media briefing.<\/p>\n
“Most of these patients have been treated at home,” said Pillay, the Associated Press<\/em> reported. “Vaccinated people tend to do much better. We have not seen a vast increase in hospitalizations, but this is still early days. Hospitalizations often come several days after a rise in confirmed cases.”<\/p>\n