Biden and Harris meet US COVID-19 team, plan to accelerate vaccinations after swearing-in

The 46th US President-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris on January 5 (local time) were briefed on country’s response as well as a vaccination strategy against COVID-19. While on one hand, as the US is rocked with Trump’s disputed claims about voter fraud just as Biden’s inauguration day is approaching, on another, the country is still recording a surge in COVID-19 cases including the new strain that is found in the UK.

According to the official statement released by the Biden-Harris transition office, both incoming leaders met with the members of ‘their’ COVID team that including  Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci, COVID-19 Coordinator Jeff Zients,  CDC Director-designate Dr. Rochelle Walensky, COVID-19 Deputy Coordinator Natalie Quillian, COVID-19 Vaccinations Coordinator Bechara Choucair, and the co-chairs of his COVID-19 transition task force. 

From an update on the escalating number of COVID-19 cases in the United States to the emergence of the new strain in the country, both Biden and Harris were briefed on the current situation of the pandemic. As per the statement, Biden has planned to enhance and accelerate vaccinations just after they are sworn in on January 20, 2021. For the same, several options were discussed including increasing the federal leadership.

The statement read, “The president-elect and vice president-elect were updated on the escalating number of COVID cases and the emergence of the new strain of the virus in the US. The team briefed the president-elect and vice president-elect on plans to enhance and accelerate vaccinations after they are sworn in. 

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“A number of options were discussed, and the president-elect directed the team to explore all possible avenues — particularly increasing federal leadership — to accelerate getting the U.S. population vaccinated,” it added.

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COVID-19 in US

As of January 6, the total COVID-19 infections that have been recorded in the United States are more than 21 million with at least 357,258 deaths as per Johns Hopkins University tally. The US has also authorised two COVID-19 vaccines including Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca and the inoculations have also started. Even as more and more nations are authorising emergency use approval to vaccines, global infections have surpassed the grim milestone of 86 million cases with over 1.8 million deaths.

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