Wednesday 29 December 2021

Biden prepares to leave his Delaware beach house for Wilmington: Joe and Jill continue their stay away from the White House after they broke cover to play with puppy Commander and as COVID cases hit a record high

 President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will leave their Rehoboth beach house on Wednesday to head to their family home in Wilmington, Delaware, as they continue their vacation from the White House amid rising COVID cases throughout the country.

The first couple slipped out for a walk on the beach Tuesday evening, taking their new German Shepherd puppy Commander with them. 

Biden, who arrived at the beach on Monday afternoon, insisted to reporters that he was on the phone for most of Tuesday working despite a blank public schedule and spending the days following the Christmas holiday away from Washington, D.C. 

Commander, the president said, is a 15-week-old rescue given as a present from his brother for his 79th birthday last month. The new addition to the first family comes after Biden's dog Champ, who was also a German Shepherd, died in June 2021. Their other dog Major now lives with family friends after a series of biting incidents. 

The Bidens took Commander down to the beach where they let him off his leash to run on the sand. Jill Biden had a ball with her that she and the president took turns throwing for the pup to fetch.  

It was Biden's 31st trip to Delaware, his 4th to Rehoboth Beach, since the start of his presidency, according to CBS News' Mark Knoller, who tracks presidential travel. 

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will leave their Rehoboth beach house on Wednesday to head to their family home in Wilmington, Delaware

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will leave their Rehoboth beach house on Wednesday to head to their family home in Wilmington, Delaware 

Jill and Joe Biden toss a ball to each other as they take their dog Commander for a walk on the beach in Delaware on Tuesday evening

Jill and Joe Biden toss a ball to each other as they take their dog Commander for a walk on the beach in Delaware on Tuesday evening

Biden told reporters that the 15-week-old puppy is a rescue that was gifted to him by his brother last month for his 79th birthday

Biden told reporters that the 15-week-old puppy is a rescue that was gifted to him by his brother last month for his 79th birthday

Biden takes a stroll with Jill and family dog on Delaware beach
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The first couple spent Christmas at the White House but decamped to Delaware for the week between the Christmas and New Year's holiday. 

Biden's exodus from Washington D.C. comes as the nation's capitol and its surrounding area became a COVID hot spot. The proportion of people testing positive has soared to above 15% in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

And on Tuesday the nation broke its record for the most daily COVID-19 cases with a seven-day average of 264,546 cases reported, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. 

The country's previous record was about 247,503 daily cases, reported on January 11. 

The record comes as the US hit a total of 53,170,421 cases as of Wednesday morning, amid a growing number of people who were tested before and after Christmas weekend. 

The administration has faced criticism for a testing shortage as long lines formed around the nation. 

Biden said his administration had made 'a bit of progress' in getting more COVID testing kits distributed but he did not offer details. 

The president has pledged 500 million at-home COVID tests will be available in the new year. 

Biden also said he would impose a vaccine mandate for domestic airline travel if his medical team recommends it.

He said he would make a final decision on the matter 'when I get a recommendation from the medical team.'

The idea of mandating COVID vaccines for domestic travel has been bouncing around the administration for months. The emergence of the Omicron variant and rising case rate has it being reconsidered yet again.  

President Biden takes Commander for a walk on the beach

President Biden takes Commander for a walk on the beach 

The president told reporters that he will make a decision on domestic vaccine requirements 'when I get a recommendation from the medical team.'

The president told reporters that he will make a decision on domestic vaccine requirements 'when I get a recommendation from the medical team.'

The president plays fetch with the newest addition to the first family during some off-leash beach time December 28

The president plays fetch with the newest addition to the first family during some off-leash beach time December 28 

Members of the secret service guarding the President and First Lady are seen spread out around them

Members of the secret service guarding the President and First Lady are seen spread out around them

The Bidens played with their new puppy as the sun set in Delaware

The Bidens played with their new puppy as the sun set in Delaware


Meanwhile, the impact the Omicron variant has had on the nation's skyrocketing COVID infections may have been overblown by as much as 50 percentage points after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention slashed its estimate for the prevalence of the strain in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.

The agency released a revised chart showing that the new variant accounted for 23 percent of all cases for the week ending on December 18, as opposed to the 73 percent it originally reported. 

The chart showed that the Omicron variant accounted for 59 percent of all new cases for the week ending on December 25, meaning the Delta variant has been accounting for far more infections than the agency initially thought. 

'There's no way around it, it is a huge swing that makes it seem like something went really wrong,' Dr. Shruti Gohil, the associate medical director for epidemiology and infection prevention at UC Irvine's School of Medicine, told NPR.  

The CDC's new data on the prevalence of the Omicron variant shows that the Delta variant, which is more severe and less contagious than Omicron, still has a hold on the country and is a driving factor behind the most current surge in cases.

It also begs the question of how the CDC could have recorded such a drastic difference in the strain's prevalence than what was the reality. 

Jasmine Reed, a spokesperson for the CDC, recognized the 'wide predictive interval posted in last week's chart,' referring to the huge gap in the data for the week ending on December 18, and attributed it to the 'speed at which Omicron was increasing.'

'CDC's models have a range, and… we're still seeing steady increase in the proportion of Omicron,' she told Fox News.

Gohil noted that there is 'always a delay in the testing information that comes in, and that's what the public should take away.'

She added that health professionals were finally understanding the Delta variant more and figuring out how to test for it efficiently when the Omicron variant swept through the country.

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