Overview: Biden Executive orders and overseas deveopments

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Thu, 2021-01-21 16:49 — mike kraft

The Latest: Biden boosts US response to COVID-19 pandemic WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is signing 10 executive orders aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic, including one broadening the use of the Defense Production Act to expand vaccine... AP NEWS

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is signing 10 executive orders aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic, including one broadening the use of the Defense Production Act to expand vaccine production.

Biden also signed an order Thursday mandating masks for travel, including in airports and planes, ships, trains, buses and public transportation, as well as one directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse states for some costs related to their COVID-19 response and to provide funds to help reopen schools.

Biden is ordering FEMA to begin setting up vaccination centers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin a program to make vaccines available through local pharmacies starting next month. And he’s mobilizing the Public Health Service to deploy to assist localities in vaccinations.

The administration is trying to provide 100 million vaccine injections during the first 100 days of Biden’s presidency, an initial step toward getting the country inoculated from the disease so that schools and businesses can fully reopen. ...

--... US Chamber of Commerce supports Biden’s virus plan. Dr. Anthony Fauci vows full US engagement with WHO. Angela Merkel sees signs of coronavirus decline in Germany, but extends restrictions until Feb. 14. India sends 2 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to Bangladesh.

WASHINGTON — The largest business lobbying group in the U.S. is supporting President Joe Biden’s early moves to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief policy officer Neil Bradley says Biden is correct in his assessment that controlling the coronavirus is the key to fully reopening the economy.

“America must return to health before we can restore economic growth and get the 10 million Americans who lost their jobs in the last year back to work,” Bradley said. “We support the new administration’s focus on removing roadblocks to vaccinations and reopening schools, both of which are important steps to accelerating a broad-based economic recovery for all Americans.”

INDIANAPOLIS — Drugmaker Eli Lilly says its COVID-19 antibody drug helped prevent illness among residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care locations.

It’s the first major study to show an antibody medication may prevent disease. The drugmaker says residents and staff who got the drug had up to a 57% lower risk of getting COVID-19. Among nursing home residents only, there was up to a 80% reduction in risk. ...

TORONTO — The leader of Canada’s most populous province says he isn’t buying the excuse from Pfizer about why Pfizer deferred all its COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Canada next week.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says it unacceptable that other countries are getting the doses and Canada is not.

Pfizer announced a temporary reduction in deliveries last Friday so it could upscale its Puurs, Belgium plant, which supplies all shots delivered outside the United States. Ford says that’s “crap” and says Pfizer is messing up. ...

PARIS — France will require people wear higher quality face masks in public, a measure likely to render many home-made cloth masks obsolete.

Government officials say the new rule will be published Friday to help slow the spread of a possibly more contagious variant of the coronavirus.

The rule will require face masks worn in public approach the standard of surgical masks in their ability to filter out most tiny particles. ....

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s president says Jackson Mthembu has died from the coronavirus, becoming the first cabinet minister to succumb to the disease.

The 62-year-old Mthembu in recent months had been a central figure in communicating to the public the South African government’s response to COVID-19. ...bu “an exemplary leader.”

He tested positive on Jan. 11. Mthembu’s death comes as South Africa battles a second wave of the coronavirus that may be driven in part by a new variant of the coronavirus. ...

CHICAGO — Health researchers say young children need to be careful with alcohol-based hand sanitizer, especially dispensers at eye level.

The researchers say they’ve seen more cases of children who got the substance in their eyes.

Studies published Thursday in JAMA Ophthalmology detail cases in France and India, some resulting in eye pain and cornea ulcers that ultimately healed. But a few youngsters required eye surgery and researchers say risks include blindness. Many cases involved dispensers in public places. ...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is extending a statewide order requiring face masks in public to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

PHOENIX — Arizona, the state with the worst coronavirus diagnosis rate in the country, reported nearly 9,400 confirmed cases on Thursday.

The Department of Health Services reported 9,398 cases and 244 confirmed deaths, increasing the state’s pandemic totals to 699,942 cases and 11,772 deaths.

According to the state’s coronavirus dashboard, there were 4,580 hospitalized COVID-19 patients occupying inpatient beds on Wednesday, down from the Jan. 11 record of 5,082. ...

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