White House Cuts Coronavirus Briefings to Twice a Week

White House coronavirus officials announced Tuesday they would only brief reporters twice a week about the ongoing fight against the virus.

“We are going to be moving our press briefing calls from three days per week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday going forward to twice per week on Tuesdays and Fridays,” White House Senior Advisor for COVID-19 Response Andy Slavitt said at the top of the administration’s briefing on Tuesday.

Since Biden took office, federal health officials held three briefings a week to advise Americans on the fight against the coronavirus and take questions from reporters.

No reason was given for dropping one of the weekly briefings, but Slavitt reassured reporters they would continue to bring updates about the “next phase of our COVID-19 response.”

“Transparency with you is vital and you will continue to see this transparency in a variety of formats,” he said.

The briefings typically include Centers for Disease Control director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The federal health officials spoke about the administration’s “next phase” of the vaccination program, asking everyone 16 and over to get vaccinated.

Walensky warned Americans they would face more outbreaks in states and areas where the population was hesitant to get the vaccine.

“Where we have low areas of vaccination, we are going to potentially see more outbreaks, which is why I think it’s really — we have to be careful and we have to make sure that people get vaccinated in all corners and in all counties,” she said.