Biden unveils coronavirus plan, warns it will take months to ‘turn things around’

President Biden on Thursday unveiled a comprehensive strategy to address the coronavirus pandemic while warning that it would take months for his administration’s actions to significantly alter the trajectory of the pandemic.

Biden, seeking to manage expectations as the United States confronts a dire period of infections, said that the COVID-19 death toll would likely top 500,000 in February and that it would take months to get Americans vaccinated against the virus.

“We didn’t get into this mess overnight and it’s going to take months for us to turn things around. But let me be equally clear — we will get through this,”  Biden said in remarks from the State Dining Room.

“We will defeat this pandemic, and to a nation waiting for action, let me be the clearest on this point: Help is on the way,” he continued.

Biden on his first full day in office unveiled a 100-plus page national strategy to defeat COVID-19, which focuses on accelerating vaccinations while slowing the spread of the virus with increased mask wearing, more testing and other public health measures. He also signed 10 executive orders aimed at blunting the public health crisis.