Big Push On Testing News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Safely. >> reporter: another sign that the swabs could play a massive role in our return to normalcy. how far away are we from a time when we'll have enough toasts accomplish that? >> we can all hope that the testing bottlenecks are resolved quickly, but i'm rather convinced that this will take some time. >> now, a lot of the criticism here is not just about the quantity of testing but it's about developing a more aggressive strategy. now, for example, pills that treat covid, they may be available in the near future, but they need to be taken within a few days of showing symptoms, so dr mitcha...

Of protection or security if they all got a rapid test. >> reporter: dr. william schaffner is part of the advisory committee on immunization practices. >> i'm certainly disappointed and concerned that testing is not more widely available. >> reporter: number parts of the country, finding a test is extremely difficult. appointments are tough to get and over-the-counter rapid tests are selling out online and at pharmacies. dr. brook watts works with metro health in ohio. >> there isn't a rapid test to be found, and the pcr tests that are offered generally at testing sites, the wait period is pro...

There's plenty offing. >> reporter: but covid is surging and the testing supply hasn't kept up. >> we need to flood the system with tests and have tests available for anyone who wants them. >> reporter: senior administration officials tell cnn that president biden is set to announce new testing measures today. they will purchase half a billion at-home rapid tests to be delivered to americans for free starting in serbia and they will set up more federal testing sites including one in new york city that will open before christmas. >> this far into the pandemic the u.s. is, you know, loyalty year...

We begin this hour with the president's fight against the pandemic. a short time from now he'll speak to the nation and lay out his plan for fighting the new winter surge. so far we know that plan will include expanding access to testing, making some 500 million at-home test kits available to americans as soon as next month. increased support for hospitals asking the pentagon to deploy troops to some of the hardest hit areas and stepping up vaccine capacity, including new pop yup sites for people to get shots. according to the white house, the president will also lay out two messages for two g...

Best to protect them as well as ourselves. it is stunning how quickly this has moved. not even a month has passed since we first heard about omicron. look what's happened in the past couple of weeks. less than 1% of new cases were only krofnlt week ending december 11th that jump to 12.6 and now 73.2% so in two weeks it went from almost nothing to being almost three-quarters of the new cases in the united states. now, let's take a look at where it's even higher than 73%. there are pockets in the southeast as well as in the northwest where it's actually -- omicron is actually 95% of new cases so...