No one asked Biden about covid. That’s good news.

In the tradition of most modern chief executives, Joe Biden arrived at his first formal presidential news conference with a nugget to announce: He was doubling his initial goal and would assure that 200 million coronavirus vaccine shots would be administered to the American public in his first 100 days in office.

So it was perhaps odd that the president got no questions from reporters about the pandemic that in the past year has killed nearly 550,000 Americans, devastated the economy and upended just about every aspect of daily life in this country.

But it was also, in a way, a compliment to the Biden administration’s management of the epidemic that is the White House’s most urgent priority, an acknowledgment that at last it has begun to feel that the situation is coming under control.

While the news conference stagecraft was a reminder that we are not back to normal – journalists were wearing masks, and their seats were spaced out for safety – Biden confidently declared: “Help is here, and hope is on the way.”

The bumps in the vaccine rollout have been smoothed, and 200 million shots sounds achievable by April 30, when Biden’s presidency hits its 100-day mark. Economic forecasters are predicting a strong rebound in growth and jobs.

Throughout the hour-long news conference, the president himself was relaxed, well-prepared and in command of the intricacies of policy. Opponents who have portrayed him as doddering no doubt are wishing they hadn’t lowered the bar so far.

But there are new challenges arising – among them a spate of mass shootings and a rise in the number of migrant children at the border that the administration is reluctant to call a crisis, though it is overwhelming the facilities to care for them.

It was no surprise those topics tended to dominate the questions Biden received.

Biden was defiant in his defense of the presidential decisions that have contributed to the chaos at the border. “Rolling back the policies of separating children from their mothers? I make no apology for that,” he said. “Rolling back the policies of ‘Remain in Mexico,’ sitting on the edge of the Rio Grande in muddy circumstance with not enough to eat? I make no apologies for that.”

But he also warned that the immediate situation at the border “better get a whole hell of a lot better, real quick, [or] you are going to hear some people [in his administration] leaving. We can get this done.”

A president who was sworn into office with so much on his plate has not trimmed the ambition of his overall agenda. But he is sounding fresh cautionary notes, and counseling patience and discipline.

“These long-term problems have been around a long time, and what we’re going to be able to do, God willing, is now begin one at a time to focus on those, as well,” he added. “And whether it’s immigration or guns or a number of other problems facing the country.”

Biden campaigned on a promise that he could bridge the partisan divide in Washington and return the capital to the way that it worked when he was a young senator. In his inaugural address, he told Americans the two parties could “join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature.”

Maybe that is still possible outside the Beltway. But his economic package did not get a single GOP vote in Congress, despite polls showing it is resoundingly popular with the public.

So Biden now sounds less hopeful than he once did about the chance that Republicans on Capitol Hill will join him. He has opened the door a crack further to rewriting the filibuster rules that allow a minority in the closely divided Senate to stop legislation in its tracks. And as the topic turned to Republican efforts to narrow voting rights around the country, Biden was vehement. “What I’m worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It’s sick. It’s sick,” he said, citing proposals that would close polls earlier than many people get off work, or prevent voters standing in line from being provided water.

Perhaps the buzziest moment came when the oldest president in U.S. history was asked whether he plans to run for reelection in 2024, and he replied that that is his intention.

And why not? It was a way of letting it be known that Biden still believes he has a lot to achieve.