Biden honours lives lost
WASHINGTON: United States Presidentelect Joe Biden yesterday led a national memorial observance on the eve of his inauguration, to honour the 400,000 Americans who have perished from Covid19 so far.
The sundown commemoration came hours before President Donald Trump was due to hand over a country racked by the greatest public health crisis in a century, economic devastation and violent political upheaval.
Ceremonies spearheaded by Biden and Vicepresidentelect Kamala Harris, from the base of the Lincoln Memorial, marked the Federal Government’s first official nod to the pandemic’s staggering death toll.
‘‘To heal, we must remember. It’s hard sometimes to remember, but that’s how we heal. It’s important to do that as a nation,’’ Biden said to begin a countrywide tribute.
As he spoke, 400 electric lamps were illuminated to honour the dead; gospel star Yolanda Adams performed the song Hallelujah before a moment of silence.
Michigan nurse Lori Marie Key sang Amazing Grace before Biden took the podium. After he spoke, the bells of the nearby National Cathedral tolled 400 times.
The US yesterday surpassed 24 million Covid19 infections and 400,000 lives lost, according to a Reuters tally. It is the highest Covid19 death toll in the world.
Lighting displays on prominent buildings nationwide are planned for today; participating landmarks include the Empire State Building in New York City and the Space Needle in Seattle.
Biden’s team was encouraging Americans to light candles and churches to ring their bells in a show of unity.
He has pledged to make Covid19 relief a top priority upon taking office today.
Many of his plans fly in the face of the Trump Administration’s approach to the pandemic.
They include a mask mandate for federal properties, planes and buses and a recommitment to the World Health Organisation after Trump’s withdrawal from it.
He also faces the daunting task of overseeing the nation’s vaccination campaign, and has vowed to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office.
As well as responding to Covid19, Biden plans to sign dozens of executive orders and send sweeping Bills to Congress in his first days in office.
Expected moves include: bringing the US back into the Paris Climate Agreement; banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters; cancelling the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to the US; and a Bill that could legalise millions of immigrants, allow people who were brought to the US illegally as children, to remain; and reverse Trump’s policy that separated immigrant parents from their children at the border.