The Key Details of President Biden’s Massive COVID-19 Relief Plan, Explained
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President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief package is already being implemented, and it includes mask mandates, increased vaccine production, and expanded testing.
The president has pledged to provide 100 million vaccine doses to Americans in his first 100 days—a sharp increase from the previous pace.
Here’s what to expect from the Biden administration’s pandemic response, from stimulus checks to vaccine distribution.
Just weeks into his term, President Biden is already implementing pieces of his COVID-19 relief plan, dramatically reshaping the pandemic response through policies like a federal mask mandate and an expanded coronavirus testing plan. But these actions are only the beginning of an ambitious package designed to slow the rampant spread of the novel coronavirus.
The wide-ranging proposal comes at a crucial juncture in the pandemic: At the time of publication, more than 26 million Americans have tested positive for the virus and more than 440,000 have died from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Even as new cases fall, the unemployment rate stands at 6.5%, and it’s only expected to drop to 5.7% by the end of the year. Healthcare providers face an uphill battle getting delayed vaccines to patients.
In other words, relief can’t come soon enough. “Look, we got a lot of people hurting in our country today,” Biden said during a private call with House Democrats, per the Associated Press. “We need to act. We need to act fast. We need to restore the soul of the country.”
Among the administration’s top priorities are an astronomical increase in the number of vaccines administered, more testing and vaccination sites, and direct payments to Americans. Here’s what to expect from President Biden’s COVID-19 response through the next few months of the pandemic.
The pandemic can’t be stopped immediately, but the Biden administration hopes to slow the unchecked spread of COVID-19. “A comprehensive national public health effort to control the virus—even after the vaccination program ramps up—will be critical to saving lives and restoring economic activity,” the COVID-19 National Strategy reads.
✔️ COVID-19 testing
One of President Biden’s first executive orders covered free testing: Insurance must cover the cost of COVID-19 testing, and those without insurance won’t be charged, regardless of immigration status, per the national strategy.
Biden’s pre-inauguration plan called for the establishment of at least 10 mobile and drive-through testing facilities per state, beginning first in large cities. The federal government also plans to support expanded testing programs in schools, helping to ensure that they can reopen safely.
✔️ Mask mandates
On his first day in office, the president signed executive orders requiring face masks on federal property, including the Capitol and national parks, and on interstate planes, trains, and buses. Biden doesn’t have the power to implement a nationwide mask mandate, but he has called on local leaders to enforce such policies in their areas. Although more than 70% of Americans support a public mask mandate, regional lawmakers are resisting them, weakening the national masking effort.
✔️ Contact tracing
President Biden’s reopening strategy includes plans for a national contact tracing workforce, a jobs corps of at least 100,000 people who will track COVID-19’s community spread. Contact tracing is crucial for tracing the disease’s spread, allowing officials to alert those who might have been exposed before they expose anyone else.
Another task force, proposed by Vice President Kamala Harris, will address COVID-19’s impact on communities of color—and will become a permanent fixture focusing on other health issues facing people of color once the pandemic ends. Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Native Americans are all much more likely to die of COVID-19 than white Americans, a continuation of a centuries-old problem with systemic racism in the medical system and broader social inequity.
Barring a total lockdown, these preventative actions won’t be able to stop the spread of COVID-19 completely. The available COVID-19 vaccines are now some of the the most promising solutions for bringing the pandemic itself to a stop—as long as supply can keep up with demand.
✔️ Hundred of millions of doses
Before taking office, the president pledged that 100 million doses of approved vaccines, enough for 50 million people, would be administered within his first 100 days in office. The target is even more ambitious than President Trump’s goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans by the end of 2020, which was not met. Biden’s administration has now ordered 600 million doses, which he hopes will fully vaccinate 300 million people “by the end of the summer” or early fall.
“It is going to be a logistical challenge that exceeds anything we’ve ever tried in this country, but I think we can do that,” Biden explained. “We’re going to be well on our way to heading toward herd immunity” by summer, he continued. No vaccines will require out-of-pocket expenses. At the time of publication, more than 35 million doses have been administered, while nearly 7 million people have received the required two doses, per the CDC.
✔️ More vaccination sites
The federal government will partner with state and local governments to launch new vaccination sites across the country, especially in areas lacking the resources to do it themselves. There will be 100 federally-supported vaccination centers across the nation by the end of February, the COVID-19 National Strategy promises.
Because most Americans live within just a few miles of a pharmacy, the administration has partnered with a handful of them to distribute the vaccine in more easily accessible venues; starting this month, some 6,500 pharmacies, including Walgreens and Walmart, will receive 1 million doses total. For those who live farther away, mobile immunization clinics will travel to rural and hard-to-reach communities, ones that would otherwise not have access to the uniquely challenging vaccines.
✔️ Enough immunization supplies
The vaccines themselves aren’t the only limited resource—supplies like PPE, syringes, and even certain kinds of bags used in vaccine production are suddenly in high demand. The Biden administration has invoked the Defense Production Act, previously used by President Trump to produce N95 masks, to ramp up production of mass vaccination equipment. “Low dead space” needles, which allow healthcare workers to extract as many as six shots per vial of vaccine, are of particular interest.
Biden’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” is the most wide-ranging piece of his pandemic relief package. “While the COVID-19 package that passed in December was a first step,” the president said in his first week, “we need more action, and we need to move fast.”
The plan has been met with intense disapproval by the GOP, but it appears as though the package will pass almost unchanged after the House and the Senate, with a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Harris, voted to approve its procedural steps on Feb. 5. Congress now expects to pass Biden’s plan by the end of February.
✔️ Stimulus checks
The plan calls for direct relief payments of $1,400 to eligible Americans, an extension of December’s $600 check to bring the total up to $2,000. Unlike previous payments, households with mixed immigration status and adult dependents—including people like college students—would be included. (The president is reportedly open to removing these groups from the legislation, but not cutting the size of the check.)
✔️ Rental assistance
President Biden has proposed $25 billion in assistance to low- and middle-income renters facing unemployment during the pandemic, in addition to the $25 billion approved by Congress in December. The plan would also extend the federal eviction moratorium from the end of January to the end of September.
✔️ Unemployment assistance
Under the plan, unemployment checks would include an additional $400 until the end of September. The December legislation, meanwhile, included smaller $300 bonuses only through mid-March. Biden’s proposal would also offer assistance to those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits, which typically last only 26 weeks, and self-employed people, who do not normally receive these benefits.
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