What's in Biden's 6-part plan

NEW YORK • Moving aggressively to combat the Delta variant, US President Joe Biden announced a six-part Covid-19 plan on Thursday that would touch on nearly every aspect of society. Here is what is in the plan:

To increase vaccinations, all private-sector businesses with more than 100 employees must require their workforces to be fully vaccinated or test negative at least once a week.

Mr Biden signed an executive order requiring all federal government employees and contractors to be vaccinated, with no option to offer negative test results.

He said he intended to extend the vaccination requirement that applies to healthcare workers in nursing homes to all other medical facilities, such as hospitals and at-home care.

Mr Biden pointed to booster shots as a crucial way to protect vaccinated Americans from the coronavirus.

His administration has bought the booster shots needed to give Americans a third shot. He said the government was "ready to administer them as soon as they are authorised".

Mr Biden urged parents to ensure children eligible for the vaccine - those aged 12 and older - get the shots. For the states, he urged mandating school staff and teachers to be inoculated.

He said nearly 300,000 educators in federally-run school programmes will need to be vaccinated. "About 90 per cent of school staff and teachers are vaccinated," he said. "We should get that to 100 per cent."

Mr Biden said his administration had teamed up with retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, to lower the cost of at-home Covid-19 rapid tests. This includes dedicating nearly US$2 billion (S$2.6 billion) to buy 300 million tests for community health centres, food banks and schools.

He said the Transportation Security Administration would double fines on travellers who refused to wear masks. First-time offenders will be fined up to US$1,000. "If you break the rules, be prepared to pay," he said.

Mr Biden said he would expand the loan programmes that allow small-business owners to borrow money at low interest rates in order to hire and retain workers, buy inventory or even pay down debt.

Even as the economy was now averaging 700,000 new jobs a month, Mr Biden noted that the US was in a "tough stretch and it could last a while".

Mr Biden also outlined measures to address the increasing number of infections and hospitalisations.

He said he would deploy "response teams" that would include experts from government agencies, adding to healthcare teams that have been deployed by the federal government to bolster overburdened hospitals.

He vowed to increase the availability of recommended therapeutics, including by increasing shipments of "life-saving" monoclonal antibody drugs.

NYTIMES