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In his ongoing push to get hesitant Americans vaccinated and boosted, Biden also mentioned that former President Donald Trump this week said he had gotten his booster shot.

\"Maybe one of the few things he and I agree on,\" Biden said.

He also gave the Trump administration a nod on vaccine development.

\"Let me be clear, thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America was one of the first countries to get the vaccine,\" Biden said. \"Thanks to my administration and the hard work of Americans, we led a rollout that made America among the world leaders in getting shots and arms.\"

\"PHOTO:
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki conducts the daily press briefing in Washington, Dec. 20, 2021.
>

Biden's newest efforts on omicron, from more testing to help for strained hospitals

Part of Biden's latest efforts will be free at-home rapid tests delivered by mail to Americans who request them, the president said, marking a slightly different approach from European countries that chose to send tests to all residents.

White House press sec. Jen Psaki tells @CeciliaVega that the website for Americans to request at-home COVID-19 tests will be up as soon as tests are available in January. https://t.co/shtQONK5ui pic.twitter.com/pq40zw2JIM

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 21, 2021

Americans will have to request the tests through a website that will launch in January and it's not yet clear how many tests Americans will be able to request per household.

The move is a significant departure from the White House's posture just two weeks ago, when White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed the idea of mailing tests to every American as costly and wasteful.

\"Should we just send one to every American?\" Psaki told a reporter on Dec. 6.

\"Then what happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost, and then what happens after that?\" Psaki said.

\"PHOTO:
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks about the country's fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the White House in Washington, December 21, 2021.
>

But the effort shows the consensus among White House officials on the need to improve the nation's testing apparatus, which was caught unprepared by the perfect storm of high demand for pre-holiday testing and a surge of omicron cases.

As a result, Americans have faced long lines and empty shelves this week as they attempt to safely gather for the holidays in keeping with CDC guidance, which calls for families to use at-home rapid tests as an extra layer of prevention before gathering.

Fielding questions after his remarks, Biden rejected suggestions that it was a failure to not have the tests readily available in advance of the holidays.

\"No, it's not a failure, but the alarm bell went off. I don't think anybody anticipated that this was going to be as rapidly spreading as it did,\" he said.

\"PHOTO:
Oliver Contreras/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks on the Covid-19 omicron variant in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 29, 2021.
>

But experts have long been warning that new variants are always on the horizon. Since omicron was detected last month, many have urged the Biden administration to move away from a strategy that solely prioritizes vaccination and to beef up other prevention measures, such as testing or mask mandates.

\"Scientists have been warning about the potential for new variants to come along for a year now or more. And we've known about omicron since the day before Thanksgiving. It's been weeks at this point,\" said Dr. Sam Scarpino, managing director of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundation and a member of their Pandemic Prevention Institute.

Biden outlined other efforts in his speech on Tuesday, too, including new federal testing sites around the country -- the first several of which will launch in New York City by Christmas -- and mobilizing 1,000 military doctors and nurses to overburdened hospitals.

The military aid will be five times the current deployment and could be a big boost to hospitals that have been running on fumes for two years.

\"PHOTO:
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
PHOTO: People queue to be tested for COVID-19 in Times Square, as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread in New York City, Dec. 20, 2021.
>

There are currently 175 troops deployed over four states, and since August 2021, when a joint military operation across the Army, Navy and Air Force began, about 530 medical military personnel have been deployed to work alongside civilian health care providers.

Tuesday marked the second time Biden had addressed the nation about the omicron variant in less than a month.

In November, Biden announced a winter COVID plan that included setting up more vaccination and booster clinics to encourage more Americans to get protected and increase testing by getting insurance companies to reimburse the cost of at-home tests.

The 500 million free at-home tests announced on Tuesday will be in addition to getting at-home tests reimbursed, which will go into effect on Jan. 15.

\"PHOTO:
Bloomberg via Getty Images
PHOTO: A person prepares to take a self-administered at-home Covid-19 test, received through a government program, in Easton, N.H., Dec. 7, 2021.
>

\"I know you're tired. I really mean this, and I know you're frustrated. We all want this to be over. But we're still in it,\" Biden said Tuesday, closing out his speech. \"This is a critical moment. But we also have more tools than we've ever had before. We're ready. We'll get through this. As we head into the holidays, I want us to all keep the faith.\"

ABC News' Anne Flaherty and Justin Gomez contributed to this report.

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