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WILMINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden has promised immediate action to contain the coronavirus crisis in the United States, indicating that science would dominate the national response once Donald Trump leaves the White House.
Biden’s pledge, in his first national address since defeating Trump, followed three days of record infections in the United States and came as the nation’s death toll surpassed 237,000.
Europe’s second wave troubles also deepened, with Greece becoming the latest European nation to enter a lockdown on Saturday and Poland introducing new restrictions on the movement of people.
READ: Biden vows to be president ‘for all Americans’
In France, where a dramatic increase in infections has put pressure on hospitals, 306 new confirmed deaths raised the national death toll above 40,000.
The United States has long been the worst affected nation.
Trump’s critics have attributed this to his chaotic response, which has seen him discredit America’s leading infectious disease expert, discourage face masks and speak at crowded campaign rallies.
READ: Biden promises virus action on ‘day one’ as Europe suffers second wave
At the Biden victory event, which took into account social distancing guidelines, the president-elect announced that top scientists would be appointed to his coronavirus task force on Monday.
“On Monday I will appoint a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisers to help take the Biden-Harris plan and turn it into a real plan that will begin on January 20, 2021,” Biden told his supporters.
Earlier in the day, he had emphasized the urgency it gave him to fight the pandemic.
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“I want everyone, everyone, to know from day one that we are going to put into action our plan to control this virus,” Biden said before being declared the winner.
Global infections have exceeded 49 million, and Europe has become the new epicenter of the pandemic in recent weeks.
