Kaptur Statement on Covid-19, New Biden Administration Measures

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09) released the following statement on the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and the new federal measures President Joe Biden announced to protect Americans.

“The new steps the Biden Administration is taking to combat the spread of this deadly virus will save lives, and protect our communities,” said Rep. Kaptur. “No one has been spared by the devastation unleashed by Covid-19, and we all yearn for the dawn of a new day. But as we grapple with the heart-wrenching loss of nearly 30,000 of our neighbors across Ohio, now is not the time to let our guard down. With the Omicron variant surging, the health and safety of our loved ones, friends, and frontline healthcare heroes depends on the actions that each one of us takes right now. Our best weapons in this fight are the vaccines that medical science has gifted us. In order to emerge from this pandemic, we all must do our part and get vaccinated – and boosted – as quickly as possible.”

The new federal measures President Biden announced include:

• More free testing: the federal government is purchasing 500 million at-home, rapid Covid-19 tests which will be available for free through online ordering and home delivery to anyone who wants them – beginning in January 2022.
• More support for hospitals: the Department of Defense is readying 1,000 military medical professionals that can be deployed to Covid-burdened hospitals across the country. Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is activating planning teams to work with each state to assess hospital needs ahead of winter surges, and expand hospital bed capacity and ambulance availability – with the federal government paying for all of it.
• More critical supplies: the federal government is pre-positioning hundreds of millions of N-95 masks, billions of gloves, tens of millions of gowns, and over 100,000 ventilators through the Strategic National Stockpile to be shipped to states as soon as they are needed.

More information on the measures President Biden announced can be found here.

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For more information, contact Chris Dalton at chris.dalton@mail.house.gov or (202) 897-7438.