The White House is reducing the frequency of its weekly calls with governors to discuss the response to the coronavirus pandemic, multiple sources confirmed on Tuesday.
The White House coronavirus task force had been holding conference calls each week with state leaders since January to discuss case rates, vaccination efforts, and how the federal government could assist states in getting the pandemic under control.
But the task force and the National Governors Association mutually agreed to shift the calls to every other week, a White House official said.
Jeff Zients, the head of the White House task force, told governors last week that the Biden administration would continue holding a coronavirus focused call on a biweekly basis, and White House officials would hold calls with state officials on other topics in the intervening weeks. Zients pledged to stay in touch with governors and state health officials regularly to provide assistance on the pandemic, the White House official said.
The shift in the weekly calls, which was first reported by Politico, comes as the White House is deploying new strategies to reach Americans who have yet to get the coronavirus vaccine and as case counts are ticking upward in certain parts of the country.
The White House last week announced plans to direct more vaccines to doctors’ offices and pediatricians so that individuals, specifically those ages 12-18, can have access to the shots. The administration also highlighted grassroots outreach from community members, mobile vaccination clinics and the deployment of "surge response teams” to help local officials mitigate the spread of the highly contagious delta variant in areas of the country with low vaccination rates.
More than 160 million people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, but the delta variant has contributed to spikes in cases in areas where many people have yet to get the shot. The New York Times reported the 14-day average of cases is up 94 percent in the U.S., with the country reporting roughly 23,000 new cases on Monday.
