By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
President Biden is sending immediate help for beleaguered hospitals straining to keep up with the pressures of COVID-19 in New Hampshire and other states that have been filling to over-capacity in recent weeks.
“Just this week, 30 paramedics are heading to New Hampshire, 30 to Vermont, and 20 to Arizona, and 30 ambulances are headed to New York and 8 to Maine,” according to a White House fact sheet.
Biden is also expected to announce today new actions to ensure everyone has access to free testing, including at-home tests and standing up new federal testing sites.
The plan is to mobilize an additional 1,000 troops to deploy to COVID-burdened hospitals. Biden is directing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to ready an additional 1,000 service members—military doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other medical personnel—to deploy to hospitals during January and February, as needed.
According to the fact sheet, Biden is scheduled to hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. to announce the help that includes:
- Deploying federal medical personnel available to states Immediately: The President is announcing that six emergency response teams—with more than 100 clinical personnel and paramedics—are deploying to six states now: Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire and Vermont. This is on top of the 300 federal medical personnel that we have deployed since we learned about Omicron.
- Deploying hundreds of ambulances and emergency medical teams to transport patients to open beds: To get ahead of surges, FEMA is ready to deploy hundreds of ambulances and emergency medical teams so that if one hospital fills up, they can transport patients to open beds in other facilities. Just this week, 30 paramedics are heading to New Hampshire, 30 to Vermont, and 20 to Arizona, and 30 ambulances are headed to New York and 8 to Maine. The Administration is also continuing to provide 100 percent federal reimbursement to states for all COVID-19 emergency response costs.
Gov. Chris Sununu, elected officials and the state Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond when asked for comment this morning. We will update the story when they do.
Watch Biden press briefing here at 2:30 p.m.: President Biden Delivers Remarks on the Status of the Country’s Fight Against COVID-19
The fact sheet said: “We know how to protect people from severe illness, we have the tools needed to do it, and thanks to the President’s Winter Plan, we are ready: 73% of adult Americans are fully vaccinated—up from less than 1 percent before the President took office—and we are getting about 1 million booster shots in arms each day. Vaccines are free and readily available at 90,000 convenient locations. There is clear guidance on masking and other measures that help slow the spread of COVID-19. And, federal emergency medical teams are ready to respond to surges nationwide.”