In the midst of the deadliest wave of the coronavirus and with the emergence of new strains, President Joe Biden will launch a national strategy to accelerate vaccinations and tests, reopen schools and businesses, and increase the use of chinstraps and masks, with the obligation of use it while traveling. There will also be requirements for arriving travelers of the outside.
Biden will also talk about the inequities that minority communities suffer when signing 10 decrees related to the pandemic in the next few hours.
Biden has vowed to take far more aggressive steps to curb the virus than his predecessor did, including public health regulations. It faces major hurdles as the virus is spreading in most states, the vaccination campaign is slow, and there is uncertainty whether Republican lawmakers will be willing to pass a $ 1.9 trillion economic rescue package in response to COVID. .
A man receives the Covid vaccine at a mobile center in Miami. Photo: AFP
“We must ask ordinary Americans to do their duty,” said Jeff Zients, the White House official leading the national response. “Defeating the virus requires a coordinated national effort.”
Biden officials complain about the lack of cooperation of the previous government during the transition. They say they do not fully understand what steps were taken to distribute vaccines. And states are complaining about the lack of vaccines at a time when they are asked to extend the immunization campaign to new sectors of the population.
Biden recognized him in his inauguration speech. “We are entering what could well be the most difficult and deadly period for the virus,” he said before asking for a minute of silence in memory of the more than 400,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the United States.
Biden’s top medical adviser on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, announced that the United States will renew its support for the World Health Organization, the target of strong criticism from the previous government, with new commitments to tackle the coronavirus and other global health problems. Health. Fauci said Thursday morning that the United States will join the efforts of the UN health agency to bring vaccines, therapies and diagnostics to people in need, in rich or poor countries, and will return to its previous level of funding. and staff to WHO.
Biden’s order to wear the mask will apply to airports and planes, ships, buses long distance, trains and public transport.
Foreign travelers must present a negative test for COVID-19 before leaving for the United States and observe quarantine upon arrival. Use of the mask on all federal property it is already required.
New plan
These new measures are part of the new plan against the pandemic published this Thursday and which includes an extensive 23-page program, in addition to the signing of the 10 decrees and the participation of the Pentagon.
The plan expands the initiatives carried out so far and details the measures designed to control the pandemic and help the recovery of the country, the worst hit in the world by covid-19, with 24.4 million confirmed cases and 406,196 deaths.
According to the television network CNN, upon arrival at the White House, Biden’s team found that the Trump Administration I had not made any plans distribution of vaccines against covid-19, with what they have to do right from the start.
Joe Biden on duty this Thursday. Photo: AP l
Biden’s plan aims to accelerate the pace of vaccinating Americans against the virus by providing more funding to state and local and state Administrations, creating more vaccination points and a national education campaign to restore the confidence of Americans.
“The National Strategy provides a roadmap to guide America out of the worst public health crisis in a century, “the plan says.
The Biden government also plans to resort to the Defense Production Act, legislation adopted in 1950 in response to the Korean War and which allows it to mobilize the industrial sector for national security issues, with the manufacture of masks, respirators and other teams against the pandemic.
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Infographic: Clarion
The president’s plan affects the increased testing to detect the coronavirus, something that Trump was reluctant to consider that he was only doing increase negative stats incidence of the disease.
Three thousand dead a day
It also focuses on reopening schools, businesses and travel in a safe way, as well as stopping the spread of the virus, which currently causes some 3,000 deaths daily in the country, with records of up to 4,000 in some of the last days.
Biden is expected to expand the details of these “aggressive and immediate” measures to contain the pandemic crisis, after announcing shortly after his inauguration, on Wednesday, the mandatory use of masks in federal areas and launch the challenge of using the mask for 100 days, the same time that has been given to achieve the vaccination of more than 100 million Americans.
With this initiative, Biden seeks to disassociate himself from the Trump administration, which made the use of this garment a reason for controversial and political statement.
Biden also guaranteed the continuity of the United States in the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, after Trump’s announcement to withdraw, with which he hopes to “strengthen” national efforts to control the pandemic, according to his spokesmen.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press and EFE
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