Coronavirus Watch: Biden sending medical teams to 6 states

The federal government is sending military medical teams to six states – New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan and New Mexico – to help hospitals overburdened by COVID-19, President Joe Biden announced Thursday.

Biden also announced plans to purchase another 500 million at-home rapid tests, Paste BN's Maureen Groppe and Donovan Slack report. That will double the number of at-home tests the administration can distribute free to people across the country.

The first batch of 500 million tests, which Biden announced in December, have yet to be distributed. Biden said a website for Americans to request free tests will be rolled out next week.

It's Thursday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news to know:

• More kids are testing positive for the coronavirus as the nation hits records in cases and hospitalizations. You can find data on COVID-19 in kids here.
• New Jersey COVID-19 hospitalizations increased by 28% since Jan. 2. And the number of people needing a ventilator rose to 500 on Monday – a 71% jump in that period.
• Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, predicts the omicron variant should create a wealth of immunity for at least the next year and annual COVID-19 shots will probably be needed for "some time."

See our COVID-19 resource guide here. See total reported cases and deaths here. On vaccinations: About 75% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 63% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

– Grace Hauck, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck