Private insurers to pay for eight rapid tests a month, Biden administration says

Kat Athanasiades and her husband had planned to have a second child right around when their daughter turned 2, which meant trying to get pregnant in March or April 2020. But then the world turned upside down.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the couple, who live in the District’s Columbia Heights neighborhood, began to reassess.

Republican governors in the United States may be championing the cause of the vaccine resistant and suing to stop mandates imposed by the Biden administration. But elsewhere in the West, the jab-less are increasingly becoming personae non gratae.

The omicron variant is exacting some of the highest infection rates of the pandemic, and the growing frustration of the vaccinated majority in the West against its unvaccinated minority is reaching a crescendo in some countries. Studies suggest omicron causes milder symptoms. Even so, the unvaccinated — at least those without valid medical reasons — are being blamed for overburdening hospitals by putting themselves, and society, at risk.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday evening that he has again tested positive for the coronavirus.

López Obrador was visibly ill at a Monday morning news conference and without a mask as he spoke to reporters. When one reporter commented on his apparent symptoms, López Obrador, known by his initials, AMLO, responded that he “woke up hoarse.”

Multiple states have in recent days adopted new protocols and taken aggressive steps to help overwhelmed hospitals grapple with yet another onslaught of patients fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant.

From halting elective surgeries, to curtailing the number of nurses caring for patients, or using emergency services to transport the most severe cases to hospitals, these new actions are intended to triage care for those most in need and maximize use of limited resources.

At-home rapid coronavirus tests remain the “bedrock of our long-term strategy for managing this virus,” said Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health — even in the face of new research that suggests that they might be less effective at identifying illness caused by the omicron variant.

The antigen tests, commonly referred to as rapid or at-home tests, “remain a very, very effective tool,” Jha said on ABC’s “This Week.” He noted that “in the first day of symptoms” with omicron, “it does look like the test is a little less sensitive,” but beyond that, “these antigen tests continue to work really effectively.”

Private insurers will be required to help consumers buy rapid coronavirus tests starting Saturday, when health plans must cover up to eight tests per person per month, the Biden administration said.

The Monday announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services says that consumers may buy a test online or in-person and “either get it paid for up front by their health plan or get reimbursed for the cost by submitting a claim for their plan.”

U.S. health officials on Monday advised against travel to Canada, citing “very high” levels of the coronavirus in the country.

Canada joins scores of countries to which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has discouraged all travel, including South Africa, Britain, France and many more. The agency has also urged unvaccinated people to halt all but essential travel to 54 additional nations, including Mexico — by far the top international destination for U.S. citizens last year, according to federal data.

Here’s what to know about the top coronavirus stories around the globe.