(CNN) The Biden administration is opening additional federally run free Covid-19 testing sites this week in six states across the country -- Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Delaware, Texas and Washington -- as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to surge in the US.
The goal is to make the vaccine – called Corbevax – available in other low- and middle-income nations across the globe to help prevent future variants of concern from forming.
“As long as we leave the southern hemisphere unvaccinated new variants of concern for us will emerge," said Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean at Baylor's National School of Tropical Medicine. “The only way to stop it is to vaccinate the world and we think our [vaccine] is going to be a major contributor to that."
Gov. Doug Ducey earmarked another $35 million aimed at helping hospitals staff their existing beds and discharge patients more quickly. His administration also asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 133 people to bolster staffing at seven rural hospitals....
The omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 has been found in Houston’s wastewater, the Houston Health Department announced Monday night. "The detection is the first indication the new variant is in Houston, although a case has not yet been confirmed in the city," the department said.
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