US President Joe Biden said on Thursday he will give details about his administration's plans to distribute free N95 masks next week, following calls for increased access to masks due to the surge in cases caused by the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
“For some Americans, the [high-quality] mask is not always affordable or convenient to get,” Mr Biden said.
“So, next week, we'll announce how we're making a high-quality mask available for … the American people for free.”
Politico reported on Thursday that several officials in President Joe Biden's administration, including Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, were discussing the possibility of giving N95 or KN95 masks to all who want them.
“We're strongly considering options to make more high-quality masks available to all Americans,” White House Covid Response Team Co-ordinator Jeff Zients said in Wednesday's briefing.
Bernie Sanders and other US senators on Wednesday moved to improve access to high-filtration face masks to combat the Omicron variant, which has spread like wildfire across the country.
The US is recording historic numbers of coronavirus cases — leading to a record level of hospital admissions in a strapped healthcare system.
The country has registered a seven-day average of 760,000 infections, but doctors say higher-filtration masks would help curb infections.
The Omicron variant now accounts for 98 per cent of US cases, estimates by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show.
“I know we all wish that we could finally be done with wearing masks — I get it,” Mr Biden said. “But they're a really important tool to stop the spread especially the highly transmissible Omicron variant.”
Doctors and public health experts have been advocating better masking practices and for the US government to help.
“The US should make masks available via multiple avenues — sending them to people's homes, free at post offices and grocery stores, as well as outside of public transit,” Dr Abraar Karan, an infectious diseases doctor at Stanford University, told The National.
When the pandemic first hit the US, higher-quality masks were prioritised for essential and healthcare workers amid frenzied demand for N95s. Mr Biden said his administration “more than tripled” the federal stockpile of N95 masks for healthcare workers.
A culture of cloth masks — or not wearing masks at all — has been hard to shake, but an upgrade is now seen as essential.
“We should have had high-filtration masks from the start — all variants transmit by aerosols, so that has not changed. However, with increased transmissibility, the benefit of high-filtration masks is even greater,” Dr Karan said.
The CDC will be updating mask guidance on their website to better inform Americans on masking and quality, the agency's Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday.
“Better access and availability would be critical,” said Dr Karan, who has been advocating for people to wear better masks.
“Imagine an increase in filtration of 20-30 per cent over double masking and 40-60 per cent over single masking with cloth, multiply that across an entire city, county or state, and you will slow down spread.”
Connecticut is distributing six million N95 masks to residents this January. Cities such as Milwaukee and Salt Lake City are also giving out free N95 masks.
The push follows requests for wider access to rapid at-home testing, with pressure leading to the Biden administration's announcement that 500 million free tests would be sent to homes upon request via a website set to launch this month.
But the drive for N95s for all faces challenges in both acceptance and interest as mask mandates become a heated political and cultural topic in the country, despite the public health benefits.
T20 World Cup Qualifier
Final: Netherlands beat PNG by seven wickets
Qualified teams
1. Netherlands
2. PNG
3. Ireland
4. Namibia
5. Scotland
6. Oman
T20 World Cup 2020, Australia
Group A: Sri Lanka, PNG, Ireland, Oman
Group B: Bangladesh, Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Muslim Council of Elders condemns terrorism on religious sites
The Muslim Council of Elders has strongly condemned the criminal attacks on religious sites in Britain.
It firmly rejected “acts of terrorism, which constitute a flagrant violation of the sanctity of houses of worship”.
“Attacking places of worship is a form of terrorism and extremism that threatens peace and stability within societies,” it said.
The council also warned against the rise of hate speech, racism, extremism and Islamophobia. It urged the international community to join efforts to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
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Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
