Biden used the martial law to combat coronavirus

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Thursday to use the Wartime Manufacturing Act to fill a shortage in the supply of goods needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The law gives the authorities the right to instruct private companies to speed up the production and delivery of specific goods in the event of an emergency.

Earlier, Biden’s supply coordinator in this area, Tim Manning, told reporters that the administration has compiled a list of 12 items for which it is necessary to immediately increase supplies. In particular, we are talking about N95 class masks, special protective suits, gloves, cotton swabs for taking tests, syringes, vaccine components, and others.

According to NBC News, the Biden administration will request an additional $ 400 million from Congress for this purpose, in addition to the $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package being discussed.

The Trump administration also resorted to using this law to produce ventilators, masks and other items, but, according to critics, the law was not used widely enough.

Earlier, Biden unveiled a plan to combat the pandemic, for which he signed a total of 10 executive orders on Thursday.

The list of measures includes the opening of more vaccination centers, including in stadiums, gyms and conference centers, with the involvement of thousands of additional employees.

US President Joe Biden, who took office on Wednesday, was among the first to sign a decree on the return of the United States to the World Health Organization, as well as a decree calling for the wearing of masks everywhere for 100 days. The President ordered that masks and social distancing be required in federal buildings and on federal territory, and also ordered that federal employees and contractors wear them. All the others he just called on to do it. In most cases, the issue of mandatory wearing of masks is decided by local authorities at the district and state levels.

Even before the inauguration, Biden proposed a plan for vaccination against COVID-19, which should allow 100 million injections to be made in 100 days of his presidency, that is, before the end of April. By the time he came to the White House, 17 million people had been vaccinated.

The United States leads the world in the number of people infected with coronavirus and the number of deaths. According to Hopkins University, since the beginning of the epidemic in the United States, more than 24.4 million people have been infected with the coronavirus, and more than 406 thousand infected people