Speaking from the White House on Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced the doubling of the government's order for Pfizer's antiviral pill Paxlovid, which reduces hospitalizations and severe illness for those with COVID-19, from 10 million to 20 million, and as the Omicron variant has led to a surge in cases.

Biden said "production is in full swing."

"The United States has more pills than any other country in the world and our supply is going to ramp up over the coming months, as more of these pills are manufactured," Biden said.

In November, Biden announced that the U.S. had bought 10 million courses of Paxlovid, which Pfizer said has an 89% efficacy in preventing hospitalization and death when taken within three days of symptoms.

In his Tuesday address, Biden said, "we may need even more."

Biden noted that the number of unvaccinated American adults has dropped from 90 million to 35 million and that there are enough vaccines for every American.

"This continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated," he said.

Biden also reaffirmed his position that schools should remain open. He encouraged states and schools to use the funding given to them through the American Rescue Plan to protect students and teachers.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, one out of 100 Americans tested positive for COVID last week. The surge comes after Biden allocated $137 million toward expanding production of 500 million at-home testing kits.

Biden has deployed hundreds of military doctors and nurses to overworked hospitals. He also directed FEMA to provide emergency hospital beds wherever they are needed.

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