CORONAVIRUS

Those who test positive could get free antiviral pills.

It’s time for America to stop letting the coronavirus “dictate how we live,” President Joe Biden’s White House declared Wednesday, outlining a strat- egy to allow people to return to many normal activities safely after two years of pandemic disruptions.

One highlight is a new “test to treat” plan to provide free antiviral pills at pharmacies to people who test positive for the virus.

The 90-page Nat i onal COVID-19 Preparedness Plan spells out initiatives and investments to continue to drive down serious illness and deaths from the virus, while preparing for potential new variants and providing employers and schools the resources to remain open.

“We know how to keep our businesses and our schools open with the tools that we have at our disposal,” said White House COVID-19 coor- dinator Jeff Zients.

It follows Biden’s Tues- day night State of the Union speech, in which he pointed to progress against the pandemic since last year, with a dramatic reduction in cases, readily available vaccines and tests, and new therapeutics soon becoming more accessible.

“This plan lays out the road map to help us fight COVID- 19 in the future as we move America from crisis to a time when COVID-19 does not disrupt our daily lives and is something we prevent, protect against, and treat,” the White House said. “We are not going to just ‘live with COVID.’ Because of our work, we are no longer going to let COVID19 dictate how we live.”

COVID-19 cases have fallen to their lowest level since last summer in recent weeks, after a winter spike from the highly transmissible omicron variant. Deaths, though, which lag cases by weeks, are still elevated, with an average of nearly 1,700 people dying in the U.S. each day. Officials emphasize that most instances of serious illnesses and death in the U.S. occur among those who are unvaccinated or who have not received a booster dose of vaccine.

A key component of the administration’s plan to convince Americans that it is safe to resume normal activities is the increasing availability of an antiviral pill from Pfizer that has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization from COVID-19 by 90%. By the end of the month, the administration says, 1 million pills will be available, with double that ready for use in April.

A White House official said the “test-to-treat” plan will initially roll out in hundreds of pharmacies across the country, including CVS, Walgreens and Kroger locations, and would soon expand beyond that. Those who test positive at the sites will be able to obtain the antiviral pills for quick use, dramatically reducing the risk of bad outcomes.

The administration said it stands ready to rapidly administer millions of vaccine doses to children under 5 once the vaccines are approved by federal regulators.