US Focuses On Dealing With Delta Variant, President Biden Encourages Citizens To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine

President Joe Biden. (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

JAKARTA - United States (US) President Joe Biden on Tuesday encouraged unvaccinated US citizens to receive the COVID-19 vaccine immediately to protect themselves from the highly contagious Delta variant.

President Biden said the US would reach 160 million fully vaccinated Americans by the end of this week, but he warned against complacency as the Delta variant spreads among those who have not been injected.

"Millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and unprotected. And because of that, their communities are at risk, their friends are at risk, their loved ones are at risk," President Biden said.

"This is of greater concern because of the Delta variant," continued President Biden, underlining this variant is responsible for half of the COVID-19 cases in Uncle Sam's country.

The Delta variant, which is becoming dominant in many countries, is more easily transmitted than previous versions of the coronavirus and can cause more severe illness, especially among young people.

US health authorities said that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is now found in every US state.

President Biden noted that research has shown every case of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 in his country since early May has occurred in people who have not been vaccinated.

"Please get vaccinated now. It works, it's free. It has never been easier and has never been more important," said President Biden.

President Biden further said his government would devote the remainder of the summer to getting more people vaccinated, including going from house to house in neighborhoods to get help to more people who were not protected from the virus.

In addition, he revealed that there are 42,000 local pharmacies that will serve as COVID-19 vaccine sites. New emphasis will be placed on administering the vaccine to family doctors and medical providers as well, including those who serve younger people.

Vaccines will also be available in the workplace, where possible and more mobile clinics will be used to support summer festivals, sporting events, and houses of worship.

For information, launching Worldometers on Wednesday, July 7, the US now has a total of 34,616,076 cases of COVID-19 infection with 621,562 deaths and 29,139,138 recovered patients.