White House COVID-19 Response Team To Brief Amid Rising Hospitalisations

The White House COVID-19 Response Team will deliver a press briefing on the current state of the pandemic in just over one hour at 09:30 ET 14:30 BST.

• A livestream of the briefing can be followed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jorAfK5TXms
• New York Times data shows in the past two week that cases in the US have increased by 8%, positive tests by18%, hospitalisations by 17%, and patients in ICU by 21%.
• In that same period deaths have decreased by 2%.
• The Response Team is likely to highlight the boom in infections caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 COVID variants in states with low vaccination uptake. Kentucky and Georgia, both states with full vaccination status below 60%, have seen an 85% increase in COVID-19 cases.
• The COVID-19 Response Team may also announce plans to roll out a second booster shot.
• Washington Times: "Moves to authorize a fourth shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines would spark a debate about whether they are truly needed, or if the government is simply providing the option amid fears about variants that fueled a 17% rise in U.S. hospitalizations over the past two weeks."