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United States President Joe Biden signs executive orders as part of the response to Covid-19 in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2021 (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP).
WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden on Thursday toughened the rules on wearing masks and ordered a quarantine for people flying to the United States, as he gets to work to tackle the coronavirus pandemic on its first full day in the power.
By signing 10 executive orders at the White House, Biden told the nation that the death toll from Covid-19 would likely rise from 400,000 to half a million next month, and that drastic action was needed.
“We are in a national emergency. It is time we treat it as such, ”he said, adding that he wants to restore public trust in the wake of the divisive era of Donald Trump.
The scientists, he said, “will work free from political interference” under his administration, vowing: “We will catch up with you when we make a mistake.”
In addition to needing a negative Covid test result before flying, travelers to the U.S. will now need to self-quarantine upon arrival, Biden said. This tightened the existing regulations under Trump.
Biden’s other orders included reviving a hitherto shaky vaccination program and expanding requirements for wearing masks on public transportation.
Wearing masks “has become a partisan issue, unfortunately, but it is a patriotic act,” Biden said in stark contrast to Trump, who for months gave mixed messages on whether or not to encourage the practice.
100 million doses
Although vaccines were produced at breakneck speed in Trump’s last year in power, the launch has been chaotic.
“What we inherited is far worse than we could have imagined,” Jeff Zients, the White House’s new Covid-19 response coordinator, told reporters.
Biden has announced a goal of 100 million vaccines administered in 100 days, and its leading experts say it is still possible. So far, only 16.5 million doses have been injected.
When asked on Thursday if it had been ambitious enough, Biden replied: “When I announced it, everyone said it is not possible. Come on, give me a break, man. “
Biden said the administration was expanding the places Americans will be able to get their doses, with new community centers and additional medical staff to administer the vaccine.
It has also returned top infectious disease physician Anthony Fauci to a prominent and visible advisory role in the White House, after Trump complained about the expert’s warnings about Covid.
Covid overshadows the presidency
The pandemic has overshadowed the Biden administration from its earliest days.
Only a few spectators were able to attend his swearing-in on Wednesday and everyone from the military band to his wife Jill watched from behind face masks.
Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, began their day Thursday by participating in a traditional inaugural prayer service that also had to be held virtually due to the coronavirus.
The flood of executive orders and other directives that Biden began signing immediately on Wednesday has also focused primarily on his new national mask and vaccination strategy.
In addition, he is bringing great firepower to try to get Congress to pass a massive stimulus bill to help Americans.
But in addition, he faces many other challenges, including replicas of a gigantic government hacking attributed to Russia and the searing political tensions of the Trump era, an issue that could soon take center stage in an impeachment against the former president in the Senate.
Other fronts that Biden has opened include new protections for so-called “Dreamers,” children of illegal immigrants who have now grown up in the country and have been protected from deportation.
Yet another big bang in his predecessor’s track record was to immediately put the United States into the Paris climate agreement.
Instant change
Although Biden won comfortably at the polls on November 3, Trump’s efforts to persuade tens of millions of supporters that the election was stolen has left the veteran Democrat with hostile opposition.
Democrats now control both houses of Congress, but the existing majority in the House of Representatives was reduced in the November elections.
In the Senate, the two parties are split 50-50, with a tiebreaker vote for the new vice president giving Democrats the narrowest margins.
That outlook assures the Biden administration of an uphill climb to get things moving. Even the confirmation of his cabinet nominees runs the risk of being affected.
On Wednesday night, the 78-year-old president received his first confirmation at the cabinet level: Avril Haines, director of national intelligence.
And on Thursday, elected Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former rival of Biden in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, appeared for a Senate confirmation hearing.
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