WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday stressed for a bold action against Covid-19 pandemic, stating that the people cannot forego the important work needed to be done to get through the ‘worst wave’ yet of the pandemic.
Addressing a press conference from Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said: “We can’t forego the important work that needs to be done between now and then to get our country through the worst wave yet in this pandemic, to reduce the spread, to save lives.”
Biden pointed out that there had been a rise in infection rises, hospitalisations, and death rates, and said that projections indicated that 200,000 more lives could be lost in the coming months.
The President-elect also announced a Covid-19 Transition Advisory Board.
“Today I’ve named the Covid-19 Transition Advisory Board comprised of distinguished public health experts to help our transition team translate the Biden-Harris COVID-19 plan into action. A blueprint that we can put in place as soon as Kamala and I are sworn into office on January 20th, 2021,” he said.
The President-elect further said that the group will advise on detailed plans, built on a bedrock of science and to keep compassion, empathy and care for every American at its core, making rapid testing much more widely available, and curb the virus till a vaccine is widely available.
He also promised to provide the necessary resources for small businesses, schools, childcare centers to reopen and operate safely and effectively during the pandemic, protecting both workers and the public, scaling up productive lifesaving treatments and therapeutics.
Biden concluded his message by saying: “I won’t be president until January 20, but my message today is to everyone, is this, it doesn’t matter who you voted for, where you stood before election day, it doesn’t matter your party, your point of view, we can save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. Not Democrat or Republican lives, American lives.”
Biden earlier announced his coronavirus task force with three-co-chairs Indian American Vivek H Murthy, Surgeon General during the Obama administration; David Kessler, Food and Drug Administration commissioner under Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton; and Marcella Nunez-Smith, associate dean for health equity research at the Yale School of Medicine, Washington Post reported.
The US is the worst-coronavirus impacted country in the world with reporting over one lakh daily coronavirus cases.
The United States became the first nation worldwide since the pandemic began to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections. (ANI)
