President Joe Biden highlighted the progress the United States has done amid the coronavirus pandemic. Biden touted the progress in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, as he also acknowledged that the U.S. will still have a long fight against COVID due to the surge in Delta variant cases, according to a report from The Hill.

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President Joe Biden Highlights the Progress of the U.S. on Cabinet Meeting

The cabinet meeting President Biden attended marked his first six months in the office. Among the several other officials present in the said conference were Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

During the meeting, Biden noted that his administration's focus is convincing those who are not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 to get inoculated.

"I know it seems like an uphill climb but gradually we're making progress," President Biden said in the cabinet meeting.

The U.S. chief executive also underscored that despite the surge in coronavirus cases, the fatalities related to the notorious disease went down "dramatically" since he took office. He then gave credit to his administration's vaccination program, which picked up from Operation Warp Speed under the Trump administration and expanded the access to the remedy against coronavirus.

Despite the lesser deaths related to COVID that were mentioned, President Biden emphasized the importance of being alert against the virus.

"We have to stay vigilant, especially with the Delta variant that's out there. While COVID-19 cases are rising, virtually all of the COVID deaths and hospitalizations are from unvaccinated people," Biden further noted, underscoring that the safest measure Americans can get against the disease are the COVID vaccines.

It was not the first time the president highlighted the importance of getting inoculated against the disease. It can be remembered that in late June, President Joe Biden noted that unvaccinated individuals are at risk of getting "seriously ill and dying" due to the Delta variant. He also highlighted that more than 600,000 Americans died due to the said strain of the virus, labeling it as a "serious concern."

Dr. Fauci Reiterates the Vaccine Efficacy Against COVID-19

President Joe Biden's comment during the cabinet meeting came as the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, attended a Senate hearing on Tuesday featuring a pointed exchange with Republican Senator Rand Paul, who accused Fauci of lying about the NIH providing funding on the research at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, Reuters reported.

During the Senate hearing, Dr. Fauci stressed that the authorized COVID-19 vaccines remained 90 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and deaths. The nation's top infectious disease expert also reiterated the COVID vaccine's efficacy rate as the Delta variant was accounted for more than 80 percent of new coronavirus cases across the United States.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, who also attended the Senate hearing, noted that the deaths from COVID-19 had a daily average of 239 in the previous week.

Furthermore, Dr. Fauci noted that the CDC is reviewing data from multiple groups of vaccinated people to find out how long the protection from COVID-19 shots lasts to determine the potential role of booster shots against the disease.

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This article is owned by Latin Post

Written By: Joshua Summers

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