The list of completed actions include the launching of COVIDtests.gov, providing 7.7 million shots including 4.3 million people boosted, and announced 400 million free N-95 masks.

The U.S. Navy team is being sent to the region after a request from the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force.

Christian Hospital was selected by the Pandemic Task Force to receive federal assistance. A team of 44 health care professionals, including doctors and registered nurses, will begin arriving on January 26.

“This team will help support our dedicated local medical professionals who work hard each day to care for Missourians. The best way Missourians can help aid our hospitals and health care workers is by considering vaccination to protect themselves and their families,” Missouri Governor Parson stated.

“We don’t know what the next 6 months will bring”, Fauci said.

Fauci provided best and worst-case scenarios for COVID-19 cases.

Fauci stated, best scenario cases go down to baseline level “adequate control”. He added that a combination of vaccination and boosted people with prior infection will give a level of protection in community will get the U.S. to a place where people are staying out of hospitals. “You can get Omicron more than once”, Fauci said. It is that it is “extremely unlikely” that someone would be reinfected by the same variant

“The worst scenario is something we have to be prepared for”, Fauci said. He added if we get down to that “adequate control” but faced with another surprise with a variant that’s so different.

Some of the free at-home Covid-19 tests ordered online through the government’s website started shipping Thursday, Zients told reporters Friday.

“Tests started shipping yesterday,” Zients said. “We’re hearing stories of some already arriving today.”

Zients stated that the Postal Service is moving incredibly fast and as quickly as the at-home tests are delivered by manufacturers, the White House will get the tests to American households.

“It’s an all hands-on deck effort,” he said, also adding that the demand for the tests has been “high” and there have been millions of completed orders through the website.

Zients noted that once more data comes in about the number of orders shipped next week, he will then provide a clear update.

“We are starting to see steep declines in areas that were first peaking, so areas of the Northeast… New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, are really starting to come down,” Walensky explained.

“That also means that some areas are higher than they had been before, but overall, nationally, the case numbers are coming down which I consider an optimistic trend.”

The current average of daily new cases is down 5% across the U.S., according to the latest CDC figures.

Walensky reported the current 7-day average of daily new cases is about 744,600, compared to 783,900 the week prior.

New hospital admissions across the U.S. have increased 1% from the previous week, to approximately 21,000 new admissions per day.

The 7-day average of daily deaths remained about the same as the week prior, about 1,750 per day.

Walensky noted Omicron accounts for about 99% of reported cases across the U.S.

“Where they have done little to no steps to distribute money across the state and to school districts part of it is you have write a plan for how you’re going to keep schools open to get money and some have been delayed, but that’s an example of a state that can do more,” Psaki stated.

The flame will be displayed only in enclosed venues that are deemed “safe and controllable,” according to officials.

Officials also say no public transit routes would be disturbed and normal life will continue for the 20 million residents of the capital, where a handful of new cases have been recorded over recent days.

“Giving young people the autonomy to receive life-saving vaccines, regardless of their parents’ beliefs or work schedules, is essential for their physical and mental health,” Senator Scott Wiener said. “It’s unconscionable for teens to be blocked from the vaccine because a parent either refuses or cannot take their child to a vaccination site.”

“We have been waiting for this moment!” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a COVID-19 briefing Friday from Brookhaven National Lab in Upton.

“We are finally trending the direction we want to go down and that is downward, downward, downward.”

Hochul provided the latest figures, showing the 7-day average of new cases has dropped by about 66% in the past two weeks. The current 7-day average is 28,000 new cases – on Jan. 7, it was about 90,000 per day.

The state’s positivity rate is now under 10% for the first time since Dec. 20, currently sitting at 9.75%. Following the holidays, the positivity rate peaked to 23% on Jan. 2.

In addition, Hochul announced the deployment of 88 non-medical National Guard members to nine nursing homes across NYC to assist frontline health workers, set to begin Friday.

DHS says these new restrictions will apply to non-U.S. individuals who are traveling for both essential and non-essential reasons. They will not apply to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, or U.S. nationals.

COVID-19 testing is not required for entry via a land port of entry or ferry terminal.

Starting Friday, Americans who cannot order COVID-19 tests on the website launched by the White House earlier this week can call 1-800-232-0233.The call line, which serves those speaking English, Spanish and over 150 additional languages, is open 8 a.m. until midnight EST, seven days a week.