WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Tuesday (21st of December, 2021) told Americans worried about the rapidly spreading Omicron coronavirus variant that the country was “prepared” to fight it, as Israel — which pioneered the use of Covid vaccine boosters — announced fourth shots for those over 60 and health workers.

Omicron, now present in dozens of countries, appears to be more infectious than earlier coronavirus strains, despite early indications that it does not cause a more severe form of Covid-19 than the Delta variant.

Its lightning dash around the globe has led some governments to reimpose restrictions ahead of the holidays, dampening hopes the worst of the pandemic is over, or to re-evaluate their plans to halt the spread.

“We can see a new storm coming,” warned the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge.

In Washington, President Joe Biden announced a raft of new measures as the United States battles the latest surge in Covid-19 cases, including shipping half a billion free home tests — starting in January — in the wake of a serious Christmastime testing crunch.

“We should all be concerned about Omicron but not panicked,” President Joe Biden said from the White House, reassuring the public that the variant would not set the country back to March 2020.

“We’re prepared, we know more,” he added.

President Joe Biden said his administration would deploy military personnel to hospitals, ship supplies to hard-hit states and get new free testing sites up and running.

The United States will also give $580 million in additional aid to international organizations to fight Covid in the face of surging Omicron cases, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Omicron accounted for 73.2 percent of new US cases over the past week ending Saturday, according to the latest official data.

Denmark said Tuesday it had also become the dominant strain there.

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