Via Reuters: Record U.S. deaths prompt urgent calls for masking, stay-at-home orders.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. leaders urgently called on Americans to wear masks and threatened even more drastic stay-at-home orders after deaths from the coronavirus set a single-day record, with two people dying every minute.
More than 213,830 new cases and 2,861 deaths were reported on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally of official data, with several experts projecting the death toll will soon surpass 3,000 per day.
President-elect Joe Biden promised a new national strategy that will impose mask mandates where he will have authority, such as federal buildings and for interstate travel, once he takes over for departing President Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
Beyond the mandate, he urged people to voluntarily wear masks, a novel approach after lax public discipline to date and Trump’s own timid endorsement of mask-wearing.
“On the first day I’m inaugurated ... I’m going to ask the public for 100 days to mask, just 100 days to mask, not forever, 100 days,” Biden told CNN in an interview Thursday. “And I think we’ll see a significant reduction if we incur that - if that occurs, with vaccinations and masking, to drive down the numbers considerably.”
