President Joe Biden signed 10 executive orders to combat COVID-19 spread Jan. 21 and shared a 198-page pandemic response plan Jan. 21, reportsThe Washington Post.
The "National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness" plan aims to allocate more money for states and expands on many strategies and goals the Biden administration has previously introduced.
Ten things to know:
1. President Biden signed anexecutive orderJan. 21 to require masks on planes, trains, buses and in airports, according toThe New York Times..The order also implements mandatory quarantines for international travelers. These actions build on the executive order President Biden signed his first day in office requiring masks in all federal buildings.
2. Another executive order willcreatea national testing board tasked with developing and quickly scaling up new rapid tests for COVID-19, according toCNBC.
3. The president's pandemic plan alsoinstructsHHS to collect data on school reopenings and COVID-19's spread to produce more research into the risk of sending kids back to school.
4. President Biden willestablisha "COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force" to ensure COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and other supplies reach communities of color that have been disproportionately affected by the virus.
5. Through anotherexecutive order, the president will create a drug discovery and development program that will continue research into potential COVID-19 treatments and emphasize more diversity in clinical trials.
6. Anotheractionaims to improve federal data collection and sharing. The order instructs the CDC to create a dashboard detailing county-level COVID-19 cases so people can better assess the level of transmission in their own communities.
7. Anexecutive ordercalled "A Sustainable Public Health Supply Chain" outlines the president's intentions to use the Defense Production Act to compel companies to manufacture supplies needed for the nation's pandemic response.
8. As part of the pandemic plan, the federal government will startfully reimbursingstates for the cost of using the National Guard to aid in pandemic response activities.
9. Anotherexecutive actioninstructs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to immediately release guidelines for employers to protect their workers' health and safety.
10. The Biden administration proposed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package last week. White House officials said they would need much of those funds to enact the president's response plan, according to theTimes.
More articles on public health:
COVID-19 death rates by state: Jan. 22
23 states where COVID-19 is spreading fastest, slowest: Jan. 22
Biden to sign 10 exec orders on pandemic response; variants may drive high infection rate through spring — 6 COVID-19 updates