By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – Illinois’ Senior Senator says historic investments made under President Biden’s Administration allow Americans to be more prepared when it comes to the new COVID-19 variant Omicron.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL.) said investments from the American Rescue Plan are paying dividends in the public health sector.
“Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, which we passed earlier this year, on sadly a partisan roll call without a single Republican vote, America is more prepared. That rescue package not only funded production and distribution of life-saving vaccines, it paved the way for public health officials to detect and track new variants like Omicron.”
According to Durbin, the plan provides more than $1 billion in genomic sequencing, a process to analyze how the COVID-19 virus is evolving and spreading in real-time.
“Thanks to this investment today, America is sequencing roughly 80,000 virus samples a week. Before President Biden took office, we were sequencing fewer than 3,000, now 80,000 a week. That has made a world of difference when it comes to tracking the spread of a variant.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (DCD) report current vaccines are expected to protect against severe illness with the Omicron variant.
Since being first detected in South Africa two weeks ago, Omicron has been detected in 19 states, including Illinois.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
