Instead, Congress approved $8.3 billion with only Senator Rand Paul and two House representatives (Andy Biggs and Ken Buck) voting against, and Trump signed the bill, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020, on March 6.

The January 2022 emergence of the Omicron variant, which was first discovered in South Africa, led to record highs in hospitalizations and cases in early 2022, with as many as 1.5 million new infections reported in a single day.

[29] Disproportionate numbers of cases were observed among Black and Latino populations,[30][31][32] as well as elevated levels of vaccine hesitancy,[33][34] and there was a sharp increase in reported incidents of xenophobia and racism against Asian Americans.

[54] After other cases were reported, on January 30, the WHO declared a Public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) – its highest level of alarm[55] – warning that "all countries should be prepared for containment.

[70] In February, Vice President Mike Pence took over for HHS Secretary Alex Azar as chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, with Trump saying, "We are very, very ready for this, for anything, whether it's going to be a breakout of larger proportions, or whether we're at that very low level.

[79] Throughout March and early April, several state, city, and county governments imposed "stay at home" quarantines on their populations to stem the spread of the virus.

[82] On April 2, at President Trump's direction, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and CDC ordered additional preventive guidelines to the long-term care facility industry.

[94] In July and early August, requests multiplied, with a number of experts asking for lockdowns of "six to eight weeks"[95] that they believed would restore the country by October 1, in time to reopen schools and have an in-person election.

[123] In the following days, more cases of the variant were reported in other states, leading former CDC director Tom Frieden to express his concerns that the U.S. will soon face "close to a worst-case scenario".

[168] The Justice Department challenged the ruling several days later, yet masks remained optional on airplanes, buses, and subway systems, except when required by local mandates.

[183] In the months leading up to November, deaths from COVID-19 substantially decreased, attributed to high levels of population immunity (through vaccination or prior infection), and improvements in early treatment for patients at risk for severe disease.

[184] Nonetheless, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that the Biden administration felt that there was "enough community protection that we're not going to see a repeat of what we saw last year at this time," referring to the emergence of the Omicron variant.

[186] Concerns of a surge in Beijing caused the Biden administration to require U.S. visitors from China, Hong Kong, and Macau to provide proof of COVID-19 negative test results.

[187] At the end of the year, the CDC reported that the COVID Omicron XBB.1.5 variant became much more prevalent and represented about 41% of new cases in the U.S. Scientists at Columbia University warned that the rise of subvariants could "result in a surge of breakthrough infections as well as re-infections.

"[188] On January 11, 2023, the Biden administration decided to renew the COVID-19 public health emergency amid a winter surge of cases related to highly transmissible Omicron subvariants.

[205] Meanwhile, the New York City Fire Department instituted a more targeted municipal employee mandate on January 12, which required only firetruck and ambulance personnel to be masked, specifically while rendering pre-hospital patient care.

[206] On January 9, in a bid to avoid school and workplace disruptions amid the post-pandemic winter surge, California health officials shortened the recommended period of isolation to one day for infected individuals who exhibit only mild symptoms.

[212] On February 7, the State Department said it had facilitated the transportation of nearly eighteen tons of medical supplies to China, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials.

Privacy concerns have prevented measures such as those imposed in South Korea where authorities used cellphone tracking and credit card details to locate and test thousands of nightclub patrons when new cases began emerging.

[217] In the United States, remdesivir is indicated for use in adults and adolescents (aged twelve years and older with body weight at least 40 kilograms (88 lb)) for the treatment of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.

[222][220][223][224] On June 15, the FDA revoked the EUA for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as potential treatments for COVID-19, saying the available evidence showed "no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery".

[248] A study by economists Austan Goolsbee and Chad Syverson indicated that most economic impact due to consumer behavior changes was prior to mandated lockdowns.

Concurrent searches for both low-cost and premium products, and a shift to safety over sustainability, occurred alongside rescinded bans and taxes on single-use plastics, and losses of three to seven years of gains in out-of-home foodservice.

[271] Additionally, a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2020 revealed that the effect of stress and weathering on minority groups decreases their stamina against COVID.

Responding to Democratic proposals for nationwide mail-in voting as part of a COVID-19 relief law, President Trump said "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again" despite evidence the change would not favor any particular group.

In addition, patients already admitted might get discharged earlier than usual to make room for others more severely ill. By early September, at least seven states had called in their National Guard to help overworked hospitals, including Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina.

[307] With the new Delta variant spreading infections more quickly due to its higher transmissibility, companies including Facebook, Google, and Salesforce, have already issued employee vaccine mandates.

[319] On 10 December 2021, the UK Health Security Agency reported that early data indicated a 20- to 40-fold reduction in neutralizing activity for Omicron by sera from Pfizer 2-dose vaccinees relative to earlier strains.

Fauci's comments follow a report from the CDC indicating that the United States has a much higher level of collective immunity at this time, due to the Omicron variant.

[332] On May 16, 2022, Joseph Wendelken, a spokesman for the Rhode Island Department of Health stated that COVID-19 is now "an endemic disease" and said "we should expect moderate increases and decreases in our COVID-19 levels over the coming months".