Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

Mask requirements. His first executive order mandated mask wearing on federal property, by federal employees and contractors. He is also starting a “100 days masking challenge” urging Americans to wear masks and state and local officials to implement public measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Rejoining the World Health Organization. Mr. Biden reversed a move by the Trump administration to withdraw from the W.H.O., a United Nations agency. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, plans to participate in a W.H.O. executive board meeting in Geneva tomorrow, marking a high-profile return.

Designating a Covid coordinator. Mr. Biden signed an executive order to bring back a National Security Council position — the director for global health security and biodefense, which was created by the Obama administration after the 2014 Ebola epidemic. The office was scrapped by the Trump administration, a move that Biden aides say made the U.S. less prepared for the pandemic.

Pandemic relief. Mr. Biden extended a pause on student loan payments and extended eviction moratoriums meant to help those struggling during the pandemic.

On Mr. Biden’s second day in office, according to a memo circulated by Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, the president will sign executive actions aimed at helping schools and businesses reopen safely, expanding testing, protecting workers and clarifying public health standards.

Mr. Biden has promised to deliver 100 million vaccines into the arms of Americans in his first 100 days in office. But in his inaugural address, he acknowledged the difficult road facing the country.

“My fellow Americans, in the work ahead of us, we’re going to need each other,” Mr. Biden said. “We need all our strength to persevere through this dark winter. We’re entering what may be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus. We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation.”

The new leaders of the pandemic response

The task of translating Mr. Biden’s virus plans into action on the ground in the coming 100 days will fall to a new team of administrators, scientists and health experts. Here’s a look at some of the new faces who will be leading the effort.

Jeffrey Zients. He is Mr. Biden’s coronavirus czar, tasked with overseeing the federal response to the pandemic. He was the head of the National Economic Council in the Obama administration and led the rescue of HealthCare.gov. While he’s known as “Mr. Fix-It” for his ability to save failing government projects, progressives are wary of his close ties to business.

Dr. David Kessler, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration, will oversee the effort to accelerate the development, manufacturing and distribution of coronavirus vaccines (known under the Trump Administration as “Operation Warp Speed.”) Dr. Kessler worked closely with Dr. Fauci in the 1990s to speed the development and approval of drugs that changed the course of the AIDS epidemic.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, chief of the infectious diseases division at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School, is Mr. Biden’s pick to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a column for The New York Times Opinion section, she said she would work to restore public trust in the C.D.C. through honesty and transparency.

Ron Klain, a lawyer and decades-long confidant to Mr. Biden, is the president’s White House chief of staff. Mr. Klain, who served as the “Ebola czar” under Mr. Obama during an outbreak of the deadly disease in his second term, has been critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci. America’s top infectious disease expert is a holdover from the Trump administration’s Covid team. He will continue as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and be Mr. Biden’s chief medical adviser.

Resurgences

• In China, Beijing reported seven new cases yesterday and ordered all kindergartens and high schools closed this week.

• Much of Texas is overrun by the virus, threatening the gradual progress that the entire country has been making toward flattening the curve.

• The St. Patrick’s Day street parade in Dublin has been canceled for the second year in a row because of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Zimbabwe’s foreign minister, Sibusiso Busi Moyo, has died from complications related to Covid-19, the fourth high-ranking official in Zimbabwe to succumb to the virus.

Here’s a roundup of restrictions in all 50 states.

What else we’re following

• India said that it was starting to supply its locally manufactured version of the AstraZeneca vaccine to nearby countries, even as the government continues its mammoth effort to inoculate hundreds of millions of people at home.

• Italy plans to take legal action against the American drugmaker Pfizer for delays in the delivery of coronavirus vaccines.

• Doctors in Peru are staging a hunger strike over what they call the government’s “shameless lack of preparation” for a second wave that is overwhelming hospitals in the country.

• The airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will conduct mandatory coronavirus screenings for all outbound passengers starting on Monday, one of the first airports in the U.S. to do so.

• To vaccinate 100 million people in 100 days, a group of epidemiologists writing in the Times Opinion section say, the Biden administration should treat the coronavirus less like the seasonal flu and more like an act of bioterrorism.

What you’re doing

My wife and I moved out to the beach in Far Rockaway from Brooklyn three months before the pandemic hit. I am a surfer and the ocean this past year, and now into the winter, is a place I can leave the world for an hour or two. Surfers naturally social distance (to avoid collision) and the wind is constantly blowing away potential virus particles — and thereby any concern. Friendly conversations always seem to transpire in the N.Y.C. lineup. When the most important topic is the quality of the swell, no one is talking about the pandemic.

— Jonathan Nelson, Queens, N.Y.

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