Biden launches '100-days mask challenge,' makes quarantine mandatory for travelers
(Sourced from PTI)
US President Joe Biden has signed a series of executive orders to address COVID-19 challenges, including making coronavirus test followed by quarantine mandatory for all travelers coming from overseas. Biden said, "In addition to wearing masks, everyone flying to the US from another country will need to test before they get on that plane, before they depart, and quarantine when they arrive in America."
Biden said, "Our national plan launches a full-scale wartime effort to address the supply shortages by ramping up production and protective equipment, syringes, needles, you name it." "The death toll will likely top 5,00,000 next month," he added saying the cases will continue to mount.
Unveiling a national strategy on COVID-19 and executive actions to beat the pandemic, Biden said that this plan reflects the ideas he set forward during the campaign and they have been further refined over the last three months. "The national strategy is comprehensive and detailed, and is based on science and truth," he added.
Biden said, "The plan starts with mounting an aggressive, safe, and effective vaccination campaign to meet the goal of administering 100 million shots in the first 100 days in office." "We are on day one. This will be one of the greatest operational challenges our nation has ever undertaken, and I'm committed to getting it done," he added.
Biden said, "We will get more people vaccinated for free and create more places for them to get vaccinated; to mobilize more medical teams to get shots in people's arms and to increase vaccine supply and get it out the door as fast as possible."
Biden said that he has directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to start standing up the first federally supported community vaccination centers. "The goal is to stand up 100 centers within the next month, " he added. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will launch the federal pharmacy program to make vaccines available to communities beginning early February.
Biden also signed an executive action to use the Defense Production Act and all other available authorities to direct all federal agencies and private industry to accelerate the making of everything that's needed to protect, test, vaccinate, and take care of people.
Biden said, "We'll also task the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare and expand the pool of medical professionals who can administer the vaccine, and ensure that we've enough vaccinators to meet the nation's needs and quickly." Biden said that he, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the entire administration will always be honest and transparent about the good and bad news.
