Flurry of cases in Washington sparks fresh worries

WASHINGTON • A flurry of high-profile coronavirus cases in the United States capital - including among people who have been around President Joe Biden - has raised new questions about the trajectory of the two-year-old pandemic, even as the White House has signalled confidence in the country's ability to resume normal activities.

On Thursday, Mr Biden cancelled face-to-face meetings with Prime Minister Micheal Martin of Ireland after Mr Martin received a positive result from a coronavirus test during a gala event on Wednesday night that both men attended.

In the past week, Mr Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice-President Kamala Harris, tested positive for the virus, as did former president Barack Obama.

At least nine House Democrats tested positive this week after a party retreat in Philadelphia and late-night voting at the Capitol.

White House officials said Mr Biden, 79, had not been in close contact with anyone who tested positive and did not appear worried about his safety.

They said the administration was monitoring a highly transmissible subvariant known as BA2, which is spreading rapidly in parts of China and Europe, but that there appeared to be little reason to think there would be a U-turn back to social distancing and universal mask-wearing in the US.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that the country is in a better position to combat the new variant because of the number of people who have been vaccinated and the quality of the vaccines used.

"It has been circulating here for some time," Ms Psaki said of BA2.

She noted that China had not used mRNA vaccines like the ones made by Pfizer and Moderna, calling it "an important component" of why caseloads are so high there.

But the recent cases in Washington and the spread of yet another variant around the world highlight a challenge for Mr Biden and his team: How to embrace the country's desire to move on while being careful not to declare victory over a virus that is still making people sick and killing more than 1,000 Americans each day.

"Just because Covid-19 isn't disrupting some of our lives in certain communities as much as it was a few weeks ago, it doesn't mean it is gone," Ms Psaki said.

"It is not gone. And I think this variant is an example of that."

The tension over how to approach this juncture of the pandemic was evident in a statement announcing the departure of the President's coronavirus response coordinator on Thursday.

Mr Biden said the US had entered "a new moment" in the fight against the virus, and acknowledged the pleasure that many people were feeling as they emerged from more than two years of fear and anxiety.

"Americans are safely moving back to more normal routines, using the effective new tools we have to enable us to reduce severe Covid-19 cases and make workplaces and schools safer," he said.

But the President added quickly: "Our work in combating Covid-19 is far from done."

That work includes persuading lawmakers in both parties to approve billions of dollars to continue fighting the coronavirus. Administration officials say the money would be used to replenish supplies of vaccines, masks and new viral drugs used to treat Covid-19.

However, a bipartisan agreement between lawmakers and the White House to repurpose money that had already been approved for states fell apart after several Democratic lawmakers refused to go along.

At the White House on Thursday, Ms Psaki said Mr Biden tested negative for the virus, and continues to be tested at least once a week, but had not done so since the disclosure of the Irish Prime Minister's test result.

Experts warn that another coronavirus wave may be imminent in the US, fuelled by the more contagious Omicron BA.2 subvariant that is spreading rapidly in Europe, although they said the trend was more a cause for caution than alarm.

The Omicron variant this month began its second sweep through Europe, where past virus surges have been a harbinger of what was to come in the US.

Many countries thought they were free of the worst of Covid-19 and raced to lift restrictions last month and this month, but BA.2 is contributing to the new surge across Europe.

NYTIMES