New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged the Biden administration on Sunday to send help to help combat a surge in COVID-19 caused primarily by the new omicron variant, according to Politico.
The plea by the mayor comes after the city recorded more than 5,000 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday.
De Blasio called on the White House to invoke the Defense Production Act to develop a more significant number of at-home tests and treatments to meet excess demand.
"We need help now ... and we need a surge of support in terms of monoclonal antibody treatments," de Blasio said in a press conference. "We need more made available for New York City."
"We need to act urgently," de Blasio added.
The mayor also said the Biden administration should fast-track approval of an antiviral pill from Pfizer.
De Blasio also mentioned in the briefing that the city could get people vaccinated and boosted quickly.
According to the mayor, the city will open more testing sites in the coming days and distribute high-quality masks. At-home testing kits will be made available to reduce congestion at testing sites.
Ted Long, who heads the city's Test and Trace Corps, said there would be eight additional testing sites across the region by Tuesday, 30 fixed sites and 93 mobile units in total.
The city recently canceled Radio City Music Hall's annual Christmas Spectacular over the weekend in a mitigation effort against the virus.