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Biden Signs Executive Orders on Coronavirus Pandemic

VOA News

   U.S. President Joe Biden spent his first full day in office Thursday
   signing a number of executive orders addressing the handling of the
   coronavirus pandemic, which has affected more people in the United
   States than anyplace else in the world. The U.S. has 24.6 million of
   the world's more than 97 million infections.

   One of Biden's orders would increase production of a syringe that
   pharmacists have discovered allows them to extract an extra dose of the
   vaccine from vials.

   The establishment of the Pandemic Testing Board is the result of
   another executive order. The aim of the new board is to increase COVID
   testing. Many Americans are still scrambling to secure testing
   appointments.

   Another of Biden's executive orders mandates the wearing of masks on
   intercity buses and trains, as well as in airports and on airplanes.
   Mask-wearing has been identified as a simple, but effective means of
   slowing the spread of the virus.

   In other news on Biden's first full day in office, the country's
   leading infectious disease expert said the United States will
   participate in the global initiative to provide COVID-19 vaccines to
   poor countries.

   Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and
   Infectious Diseases and Biden's chief medical adviser, told the
   executive board of the World Health Organization Thursday during a
   videoconference that the United States will join the COVID-19 Vaccines
   Global Access Facility, or COVAX, an international alliance led by WHO
   that seeks to provide COVID vaccines to the world's poorest countries.

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