Biden signs executive orders as part of the Covid-19 response as Harris (left) and Fauci look on in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC. — AFP photo
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Thursday tightened mask wearing rules and ordered quarantine for people flying into the US, as he got to work on tackling the coronavirus pandemic on his first full day in power.
Signing 10 executive orders in the White House, Biden told the nation that the Covid-19 death toll would likely rise from 400,000 to half a million next month — and that drastic action was needed.
“We’re in a national emergency. It’s time we treated it like one,” he said, adding that he wants to restore public trust in the wake of the divisive Donald Trump era.
Scientists, he said, will ‘work free from political interference’ under his administration, and he pledged: “We will level with you when we make a mistake.”
In addition to needing a negative Covid test result before flying, travellers to the US will now need to quarantine upon arrival, Biden said. This toughened existing regulations under Trump.
Biden’s other orders included reenergising a so-far-stumbling vaccination programme and expanding requirements to wear masks on public transport.
Wearing masks “has become a partisan issue, unfortunately, but it’s a patriotic act,” Biden said, in a marked contrast to Trump, who for months gave mixed messages about whether or not to encourage the practice.
Although vaccines were produced at a blistering speed in Trump’s final year in power, the rollout has been chaotic.
“What we’re inheriting is so much worse than we could have imagined,” Jeff Zients, the new White House Covid-19 response coordinator, told reporters.
Biden has announced a goal of 100 million vaccines administered in 100 days, with his top experts saying it remains possible. So far, only 16.5 million doses have been injected.
When asked Thursday if he had been ambitious enough, Biden shot back: “When I announced it, you all said it’s not possible. Come on, give me a break, man.”
Biden said the administration was expanding places where Americans will be able to get their doses, with new community centres and extra medical staff to administer the vaccine.
The pandemic has overshadowed the Biden administration from its first moments.
The United check-in counter is seen in an unusually deserted airport terminal at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California amid the coronavirus pandemic. — AFP file photo
Only a few spectators were allowed to attend his swearing-in on Wednesday and everyone, from the military band to his wife Jill, looked on from behind face masks.
Biden and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, began their day on Thursday by participating in a traditional inaugural prayer service which also had to be conducted virtually, because of the coronavirus.
The flood of executive orders and other directives which Biden began signing immediately on Wednesday has likewise focused mostly on his new national mask and vaccination strategy.
In addition, he is bringing major firepower to trying to get a massive stimulus bill through Congress to help Americans.
He faces multiple other challenges, including the aftershocks of a giant government computer hack blamed on Russia, and searing Trump-era political tensions — an issue that could soon take centre stage in a Senate impeachment trial of the ex-president. — AFP