Biden Pandemic Executive Orders; vaccine shortages



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Elinor Aspegren

| USA TODAY

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COVID-19 has killed more than 400,000 Americans in less than a year, and infections have continued to rise across the country despite the introduction of a pair of vaccines in late 2020. USA TODAY follows the news . Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates on the coronavirus, including who gets vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, as well as other news from the USA TODAY Network. Subscribe to our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates directly to your inbox, join our facebook group or scroll through our detailed answers to reader questions to learn more about the virus.

In the headlines:

►President Joe Biden will sign an order on Thursday requiring people to wear masks at airports and on many trains, planes and intercity buses, according to White House officials. He signed a warrant on Wednesday requiring the wearing of face masks in buildings and on lands controlled by the federal government.

►The British National Health Service is preparing at least two London buses to serve as makeshift ambulances so that four COVID patients can be transported at a time, reports The Guardian. The buses, which are to be staffed with intensive doctors and nurses, are designed to ease the pressure the pandemic has placed on London ambulance services.

►President Joe Biden intends to sign several orders and other directives on Thursday to revive the administration’s national strategy to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic.

►Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s senior medical adviser on the pandemic, told the World Health Organization executive board that Biden would issue a directive on Thursday showing the United States’ intention to join the COVAX center, a project aimed at deploying COVID-19 vaccines to people. in need around the world. He also said the United States would stop downsizing the United States at the WHO and pay its financial obligations to it.

► California says it is safe to resume use of a batch of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine after some people have become ill and it has been recommended that the injections be stopped. The decision frees up more than 300,000 doses for counties, cities and hospitals.

► Efforts to vaccinate Americans against the coronavirus are hit by a roadblock: a number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine and tens of thousands who have managed to secure appointments for a first dose sees them canceled. The reason for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand in the United States was not clear, but last week the Department of Health and Human Services suggested that states have unrealistic expectations about the quantity of vaccine on the way.

► Florida’s surgeon general on Wednesday urged the federal government to increase coronavirus vaccine allocations to states like his, where large concentrations of older people are at greater risk of illness and death from COVID- 19.

📈 Today’s numbers: The United States has more than 24.4 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 406,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: over 96.7 million cases and 2 million deaths.

📘 What we read: Scientists are convinced COVID-19 originated from a tiny bat nesting in a remote Chinese cave, but more questions remain about the origin of the virus. Here’s why answers matter.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will extend an order preventing landlords from evicting tenants until March 31, protecting up to 40 million Americans from displacement, new CDC director Rochelle P. Walensky announced Wednesday.

“We need to act to reduce cases and keep people in their homes and out of gathering places – like shelters – where COVID-19 can gain an even stronger foothold,” Walensky said in a statement.

A study by global investment firm Stout estimates that up to 14 million households could already be close to eviction, with a rental deficit of more than $ 24 billion.

The order, issued by former President Donald Trump in September, was set to expire on Jan.31, but the CDC was tasked with extending it amid a wave of executive orders signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden signed several orders on Wednesday regarding support for Americans affected by the pandemic.

Sitting in the Oval Office, Biden signed an order demanding masks and social distancing on federal property, followed by an order of support for underserved communities. Another day, an order will be to create a COVID-19 response coordinator who will report directly to the president.

Biden’s team acknowledged that congressional action will be needed to achieve much of Biden’s original agenda. Topping that list is the passage of a $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, dubbed the US bailout, which Biden presented last week. Learn more here.

– Joey Garrison and Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY

Preliminary figures show that 2020 is on track to become the deadliest year in U.S. history, with more than 3.2 million total deaths – about 400,000 more than 2019 – a steep increase than the Public health experts attribute to COVID-19 and aligns with reported deaths from the disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,835,533 deaths in the United States in 2019. Before the pandemic, models predicted a slightly higher number, around 2.9 million, for 2020, said Dr Jeremy Faust , emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

It’s no coincidence, he said, that the excess 400,000 deaths closely resemble the coronavirus death toll in the United States, which reached 401,796 on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

“It’s not a seasonal change or just a random bad year,” Faust said. “That’s what anyone who can properly attest to these numbers can clearly see a historic increase in excess mortality. If we tie that to the number of coronavirus deaths, it’s the game, the set, the game.”

– Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY

Contribute: The Associated Press

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