4th December 2020
Covid: Biden to ask Americans to wear masks for 100 days
By BBC
US President-elect Joe Biden has said he will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office to curtail the spread of coronavirus.
He told CNN he believed there would be a "significant reduction" in Covid-19 cases if every American wore a face covering.
Mr Biden also said he would order masks to be worn in all government buildings.
The US has recorded 14.1 million cases and 276,000 deaths from Covid-19 - the highest of any country in the world.
Mr Biden is preparing to take office as pharmaceutical giants are poised to ship millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines to the American public.
The UK on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer vaccine.
In his first joint interview with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris since the election, Mr Biden said: "The first day I'm inaugurated to say I'm going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just 100 days to mask, not forever. One hundred days.
"And I think we'll see a significant reduction if we occur that, if that occurs with vaccinations and masking to drive down the numbers considerably."
The first 100 days of a new presidency is symbolically important in the US and is seen as a gauge of how a president will get things done.
The president's executive authority does cover US government property, and Mr Biden told CNN he intended to exercise such power.
"I'm going to issue a standing order that in federal buildings you have to be masked."
He added: "Transportation, interstate transportation, you must be masked, airplanes and buses, et cetera."
US airlines, airports and most public transit systems already require all passengers and workers to wear face coverings.
The Trump White House has rejected calls from American health experts to mandate masks in transportation as "overly restrictive".
The Democratic president-elect said he would be "happy" to take a vaccine in public to allay any concerns about its safety.
Three former presidents - Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton - have said they are also prepared to be inoculated publicly to show that it is safe.
"People have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work," Mr Biden said, adding that "it matters what a president and the vice-president do."
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