Biden declare war on COVID, unveils strategy

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has unveiled his “wartime” national strategy to boost the fight against the raging COVID-19 pandemic, including making the coronavirus test followed by quarantine mandatory for all travellers coming from overseas.

Announcing the measures, Biden said it would take months to defeat the pandemic but America would “get through this” if people stood together.

The moves come a day after Biden was sworn in as the 46th president.

“In addition to wearing masks, everyone flying to the United States 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 at a White House event where he signed the orders. In terms of total deaths from coronavirus, the US is the worsthit country with more than 406,000 lives lost, according to Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 24.5 million have been infected in the country.

US airlines and their employees have been seeking such a federal mask mandate almost since the pandemic began, as they have struggled to deal with score of passengers who refuse to follow the airlines’’ own mask-wearing rules.

But the previous Trump administration had refused to enact such a mask mandate, as the ex-president himself and many in his administration often made a point of going mask-less.

“Our national plan launches a fullscale wartime effort to address the supply shortages by ramping up production and protective equipment, syringes, needles, you name it. And when I say wartime, people look at me like wartime? Well, as I said last night, 4,00,000 Americans have died. That’s more than World War II... this is a wartime undertaking,” he said.