Biden warns unvaccinated people of a winter full of 'severe illness and death'

US President Joe Biden warned Thursday that the mutant Omicron "will begin to spread much faster in the United States," calling on his citizens to receive vaccines against the virus, including the booster dose, because winter will bring "severe illness and death" to the unvaccinated.

"The only real protection is to get vaccinated," Biden said, warning that winter would bring "severe illness and death" to the unvaccinated.

The US President made his statement at the end of a meeting devoted to researching the Covid-19 pandemic, and in its wake, he summoned journalists accredited to the White House in order to "deliver a direct message to the Americans."

Biden said it was "critically important" that those vaccinated against COVID-19 receive the booster when the time comes, and that those who have not yet done so "get the first dose."

The US president's statement came after Deputy White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre confirmed that the administration does not currently intend to take specific restrictive measures and prefers instead to focus its efforts on persuading the largest segment of the population to be vaccinated against the virus.

"The tools we have are working (...) We will continue to work so that Americans receive the vaccine and the booster dose," Jean-Pierre said.

The United States currently records an average of 1,150 deaths per day from Covid, according to figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The vast majority of people who are currently dying from the virus in the United States are unvaccinated.

To date, about 72 percent of the US population has received at least one dose of one of the COVID-19 vaccines, which is lower than that recorded in many other countries.

According to official figures, the United States is the country most affected by the pandemic in terms of deaths (more than 800,000 deaths), ahead of Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia.

To date, the pandemic has claimed the lives of at least 5.3 million people around the world since it began at the end of 2019, according to a census prepared by AFP on Tuesday based on official sources.

But the World Health Organization estimates that the actual number of deaths will be two to three times higher.