Arizona is among the states being targeted by President Joe Biden for a surge of federal resources to combat the omicron variant of COVID-19, the White House announced Tuesday.
Emergency response teams are heading to Arizona, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Vermont, according to a fact sheet outlining changes to the president’s winter COVID plan.
That’s on top of 300 medical personnel already deployed in response to the highly contagious omicron variant, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said accounted for nearly three-quarters of the new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. last week.
In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is deploying hundreds of ambulances and paramedic teams so that if one hospital fills up, they can transport patients to open beds in other facilities. That includes 20 paramedics already sent to Arizona.
Arizona reports 2,176 new COVID-19 cases, no additional deaths Monday
Biden was set to discuss the changes to the federal COVID response at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
