Biden Ramps Up Virus Strategy for Nursing Homes and Schools, and Urges Booster Shots

The new strategies — including encouraging booster shots for most vaccinated Americans — reflect concerns that the Delta variant is erasing progress against the pandemic.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration moved on multiple fronts on Wednesday to fight back against the surging Delta variant, strongly recommending booster shots for most vaccinated American adults and using federal leverage to force nursing homes to vaccinate their staffs. In remarks from the East Room of the White House, President Biden also directed his education secretary to “use all of his authority, and legal action, if appropriate,” to deter states from banning universal masking in classrooms. That move is destined to escalate a fight with some Republican governors who are blocking local school districts from requiring masks to protect against the virus. The shifts in strategy reflect the administration’s growing concern that the highly contagious Delta variant is erasing its hard-fought progress against the pandemic and thrusting the nation back to the more precarious point it was at earlier in the year.