US President Joe Biden Takes Federal Steps To Tackle The COVID-19 Pandemic

President of the United States Joe Biden. (Raga Granada / VOI)

JAKARTA - The President of the United States (US) Joe Biden immediately moved quickly after being inaugurated on Wednesday, January 20. On his first day at the White House, Biden immediately coordinated federal measures to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Throughout yesterday, Biden was known to be in his office coordinating the expansion of testing measures to track the spread of COVID-19, vaccinations and tighten the policy on wearing masks.

At an event at the White House, Joe Biden criticized the vaccination efforts to contain the pandemic that was happening. According to him, the vaccine launch in the United States has been a "sad failure" so far.

"Things will continue to get worse before they get better," Biden said of the impact of the virus, as reported by Reuters.

On the occasion, Biden also made a personal request for Americans to wear masks for the next 99 days to stop the spread of the virus.

The United States is known to have the highest number of infections and deaths from COVID-19 in the world. Where there are 24 million cases of infection and 405 thousand people died. Millions of people have also been removed from work due to lockdowns.

"This is wartime work," stressed Biden.

The executive order signed by Biden on Thursday will set up a Covid-19 testing board, to step up testing, address supply shortages, establish protocols for international travelers and direct resources to hard-hit minority communities.

The government will expand vaccine production and its power to buy more vaccines by taking full advantage of contracting authorities, including the Defense Production Act, according to the White House plan.

Biden promised to provide 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine during his first 100 days in office. It also has plans to expand vaccine delivery, including for teachers and shop staff. On Thursday morning, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had provided 17.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine out of an estimated 38 million distributed.

To note, it's different from Biden who took federal steps. Donald Trump while serving as US President often underestimated the crisis that occurred, leaving the handling planning to each state. As a result, policies for handling COVID-19 also overlap.