Mr. Biden’s administration followed through on those promises early in his term, helping states set up a network of drive-through testing sites working to spur development of rapid, in-home tests. He did create a testing board, White House officials said, which is composed of officials from various government agencies. The Food and Drug Administration accelerated the pace of approving at-home tests; now there are about a dozen available, up from none when he took office.
But the drive-in sites largely closed in the summer amid slumping demand as the pace of vaccinations picked up and caseloads dropped. At that time, the C.D.C. told vaccinated Americans they did not need to test if they were exposed to the coronavirus but had no symptoms. The agency reversed that guidance in September.
The United States was performing an average of 1.8 million tests per day at its peak in January, according to the Johns Hopkins data, but by July of this year, that had dropped to 424,000, even as the Delta variant began to emerge. (Today’s average stand at 1.57 million tests per day.)
The destruction of Abbott’s tests in August came precisely as the administration should have been preparing for a fall and winter surge, said Dr. Nuzzo of Johns Hopkins.
“There was no forward-looking, ‘Well, what if cases go up again? How will be build back the infrastructure that we let erode?’” she said, adding, “It was a pretty reasonable expectation that cases could go up again.”
After Omicron hit at the end of November, the president announced that those with private insurance could be reimbursed for the purchase of at-home tests, and pledged to deliver 50 million rapid tests to community health centers.
The testing announcement on Tuesday, which expanded on that commitment, reflected how the Omicron surge caught the White House off guard — as Mr. Biden himself acknowledged when reporters questioned him at the White House.
CHICAGO — The body of an man was recovered from Lake Michigan, according to Chicago police.
The man was identified as 29-year-old Spencer Williams. His body was recovered in the 1000 block of North DuSable Lake Shore Drive just after 5 p.m. on Saturday.
No additional details were made available but the Chicago Tribune reports that a boater in the Playpen noticed the victim’s floating body and alerted authorities.
The recovery comes days after Chicago first responder agencies came together to highlight water safety on the lakefront, specifically the Playpen.
Early Thursday morning, a 38-year-old man was pulled from the water near Montrose Beach and died at the hospital.
Wednesday evening, near Navy Pier, WGN News was told someone passed out on a boat and was taken to the hospital in critical condition, while a second person from that boat was still missing in Lake Michigan.
On Wednesday, a man was also found dead in the water near 37th Street.
Also, on Wednesday, a 43-year-old man was found dead after allegedly slipping and falling into the water in Diversey Harbor.
Days earlier, two women were critically injured Saturday in a rafting accident. One suffered severe injuries to her hands and the other, Lana Batochir, had her feet severed. Batochir, a mother of two, has since had three surgeries to amputate both legs 10 inches below the knee.
KYIV, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s president on Friday said the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains “very risky” after two of its six reactors were reconnected to the grid following shelling that caused Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to be disconnected for the first time in its history.
Russian shelling continued to displace civilians in the east of the country, where three quarters of the population has fled the frontline region of Donetsk, according to the regional governor, and Ukraine continued to damage Russia’s supply routes to the southern front near Kherson.
Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said on Friday evening that both of the plant’s two functioning reactors had been reconnected to the grid and were again supplying electricity after they were fully disconnected on Thursday. read more
“Let me stress that the situation remains very risky and dangerous,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his regular evening address, praising Ukrainian experts working to “avert the worst-case scenario.”
“Any repeat of yesterday’s events, meaning any disconnection of the station from the grid, any action by Russia that could provoke the disconnection of reactors, would once again place the station one step away from a catastrophe,” Zelenskiy said.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February, took control of the nuclear plant in March, though it is still operated by Ukrainian technicians working for Energoatom.
The two sides have traded the blame for shelling near the plant, which on Thursday sparked fires in the ash pits of a nearby coal power station that disconnected the plant from the power grid.
Satellite images showed a fire near the plant but Reuters could not verify its cause.
Zelenskiy also reiterated Ukraine’s demand that the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), be urgently allowed to visit the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Moscow, which has forces based in the plant’s complex, said it was doing everything to ensure that an IAEA visit, expected in the coming days, could take place safely. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine was trying to disrupt such a visit by attacking the plant.
Residents in Zaporizhzhia city, 50 km northeast of the plant, expressed alarm at the situation.
“Of course I am scared. Everyone is scared, we don’t know what will happen next, what is waiting for us every next minute, second,” said social media manager Maria Varakina, 25.
School teacher Hanna Kuz, 46, said people were afraid that the Ukrainian authorities might not be able to warn residents in time in case of radiation fallout.
The Kremlin says its aim is to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine and remove perceived security threats to Russia. Ukraine and the West say this is a baseless pretext for a war of conquest.
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Overview of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and fires, in Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, August 24, 2022. European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery/Handout via REUTERS
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said in a French television interview on Friday that Russia was prepared to hold talks with Zelenskiy subject to certain conditions, but warned Moscow would not stop its assault until its goals had been achieved. read more
“Renouncing (Ukraine’s) participation in the North Atlantic alliance is now vital, but it is already insufficient in order to establish peace,” Medvedev told LCI television in quotes reported by Russian news agencies.
Map locating Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant with Russian occupied Ukrainian territory
FIGHTING
Ukrainian rocket fire put an important bridge in Kherson region out of action on Friday, Ukraine’s southern military command said.
Knocking out the Darivsky bridge, used by Russian forces to cross the Inhulets River just east of the city of Kherson, will complicate Moscow’s efforts to supply its troops in the Russian-occupied city that Ukraine wants to take back, it said.
“Our soldiers are doing everything possible to reduce the occupiers’ fighting and logistical potential,” Zelenskiy said in his address, referring to recent strikes on Russian supply depots and bridges.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow. read more
The Ukrainian military general staff said Russian aircraft attacked several sites, focusing on more than a dozen towns in the south including the city of Mykolaiv, a river port lying just off the Black Sea.
There were also air strikes against several towns in the Sumy region near the Russian border, the general staff said, and Russian forces had shelled and carried out air attacks against the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the eastern Donetsk region, said three quarters of its population had been evacuated.
“There is practically not a single major town or city that is not subject to (Russian) shelling,” he told Ukrainian TV.
Also on Friday, Washington confirmed reports that a U.S. citizen had recently died in Ukraine, but declined to provide further details. read more
Russian state news agency TASS said the deputy traffic police chief in the occupied Ukrainian city of Berdiansk was killed on Friday in a bombing. Its Russian-installed administration blamed the blast on “Ukrainian saboteurs”. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. read more
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports of either side.
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