Biden wants to remove this controversial word

 from US laws

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

Thu January 21, 2021

(CNN)It's just one small part of the sweeping immigration overhaul President Biden is pushing.

But the symbolic significance is huge.

Biden's proposed bill, if passed, would remove the word "alien" from US immigration laws, replacing it with the term "noncitizen."

It's a deliberate step intended to recognize America as "a nation of immigrants," according to a summary of the bill released by the new administration.


Biden starts fast on immigration by halting border wall and travel ban while embracing DACA

The term "illegal alien," long decried as a dehumanizing slur by immigrant rights advocates, became even more of a lightning rod during the Trump era -- with some top federal officials encouraging its use and several states and local governments taking up measures to ban it.

"The language change on the first day of this administration, with Kamala Harris the daughter of immigrants, to me it's not just symbolic...it's foundational," says Jose Antonio Vargas, an undocumented immigrant whose organization, Define American, pushes for more accurate portrayals of immigrants.

"How we describe people really sticks. It affects how we treat them," he says. "How we talk about immigrants shapes the policies. It frames what are the issues really at stake here. It acknowledges that we're talking about human beings and families."

What the laws say now

US code currently defines "alien" as "any person not a citizen or national of the United States."

Officials in the past have pointed to the term's prevalence in US laws to defend their word choices.

In 2018, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed prosecutors to refer to someone who's illegally in the United States as "an illegal alien," citing the US code in an agency-wide email.

Justice Department: Use 'illegal aliens,' not 'undocumented'

The term "alien" was often invoked by President Trump in speeches as he warned of what he saw as the dangers of unchecked illegal immigration.
Speaking at the Mexico border last week in one of his final addresses as president, Trump used the term at least five times.
"We were in the Trump administration the perennial boogeyman," Vargas said. "Whenever Trump was in trouble, he started talking about the 'illegals' and talking about the border."
But not everyone in the Trump administration was a fan of the language.
In an interview with the Washington Post published shortly before he resigned as acting secretary of Homeland Security in 2019, Kevin McAleenan told the newspaper he avoided using the term "illegal aliens" and instead described people as "migrants."
"I think the words matter a lot," McAleenan said, according to the Post. "If you alienate half of your audience by your use of terminology, it's going to hamper your ability to ever win an argument."

This isn't the first effort to change such wording
California struck "alien" from the state's labor code in 2015.
New York City removed the term from its charter and administrative code last year.



Protesters rally against a Supreme Court decision upholding the travel ban in 2018. 

Throughout President Trump's time in office, immigrant advocates criticized dehumanizing rhetoric.
In guidelines issued in 2019, New York City banned the term "illegal alien" when used "with intent to demean, humiliate or harass a person." Violations, the city warned, could result in fines up to $250,000.
And last year two Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill to replace the term "illegal alien" with "undocumented immigrant." The bill never made it to the state Senate floor for a vote.

Prank callers targeted the term early in the Trump administration
One of the first times the use of the term "alien" drew widespread attention during the Trump administration was in 2017 after officials publicized a hotline for victims of "crimes committed by removable aliens."
Prank callers swiftly flooded the line with reports about space aliens, sharing examples on social media of their comments about Martians and UFOs.

Top-level trolling overloads ICE's undocumented immigrant hotline with calls about space aliens

But Vargas says the term and others used to demonize immigrants are no laughing matter.
"Language has power. And I think we saw that in the Trump administration, how it used dehumanizing terms and how it debased language and in turn debased people," Vargas says. "If you call them 'alien,' of course you're going to put them in jail, of course you're going to lock them up, of course you're not going to care that you're separating little kids from their parents."
Vargas says the new administration's effort to use more respectful language gives him hope that some Americans' views on undocumented immigrants could also shift. Changing just one word, he says, could have a far-reaching impact for millions of people.

Group: Billion in aid needed to help Afghan kids in 2021






Afghanistan

An internally displaced girl poses for photograph outside her temporary home in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Half of war-ravaged Afghanistan’s population is at risk of not having enough food to eat, including around 10 million children, Save the Children, a humanitarian organization said Tuesday. The group called for $3 billion in donations to pay for assistance in 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

RAHIM FAIEZ
Mon, January 18, 2021

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Some 10 million children in war-ravaged Afghanistan are at risk of not having enough food to eat in 2021, a humanitarian organization said Tuesday and called for $1.3 billion in new funds for aid.

Just over 18 million Afghans, including 9.7 million children, are badly in need of lifesaving support, including food, Save the Children said in a statement. The group called for $1.3 billion in donations to pay for assistance in 2021.

Chris Nyamandi, the organization's Afghanistan country director, said Afghans are suffering under a combination of violent conflict, poverty and the virus pandemic. “It’s a desperately bad situation that needs urgent attention from the international community,” he said.

The latest round of peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government negotiators that began earlier this month in Qatar has been slow to produce results as concerns grow over a recent spike in violence across Afghanistan.

The pandemic has also had a disastrous impact on millions of Afghan families. In 2020, the World Bank estimated that the pandemic had hugely disrupted imports, including vital household items, which in turn led to rapid inflation. The added health and economic strains of the pandemic have deepened the humanitarian impact across the country.

Many Afghans also blame runaway government corruption and lawlessness for the country’s poor economy.

The U.N. and its humanitarian partners will seek $1.3 billion in aid for 16 million Afghans in need this year, U.N. secretary-general spokesman Stephane Dujarric, said this month. That’s up from an estimated 2.3 million people last year who needed life-saving assistance.

“It’s a huge increase in people who need aid,” he said.

Nyamandi said that with no immediate end in sight to the decades-long conflict, millions of people will continue to suffer. “It’s especially hard on children, many of whom have known nothing but violence," he said.

According to the U.N., nearly 6,000 people — a third of them children — were killed or wounded in fighting in Afghanistan between January and September last year, Nyamandi said. The violence continues to force hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes every year and limit people's access to resources including hospitals and clinics.

In a Save the Children report in December, the group said more than 300,000 Afghan children faced freezing winter conditions that could lead to illness and death without proper winter clothing and heating. The organization provided winter kits to more than 100,000 families in 12 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. The kits included fuel and a heater, blankets and winter clothes, including coats, socks, shoes and hats.

Nyamandi said the plight of the Afghan people is threatened by inadequate humanitarian funding pledged by wealthy nations at a conference in Geneva in November.

“Aid to Afghanistan has dropped alarmingly at a time when humanitarian need is rising. We’re now in the unsustainable position where aid falls far short of what’s needed to meet the needs of the people” he said.

The London-based Save the Children report cites 10-year-old Brishna from eastern Nangarhar province as saying her family was forced to leave their home and move to another district because of the fighting.

“Life is difficult," she said. “My father, who is responsible for bringing us food, is sick.”

Brishna said she and her brother collect garbage for cooking fires and it has been a long time since they had proper food and clothes. “My siblings and I always wish to have three meals in a day with some fruits, and a better life. But sometimes, we sleep with empty stomachs. During the winter we don’t have blankets and heating stuff to warm our house,” she said.

___

Biden inheriting nonexistent coronavirus vaccine distribution plan and must start 'from scratch,' sources say

By MJ Lee, CNN

(CNN)Newly sworn in President Joe Biden and his advisers are inheriting no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to speak of from the Trump administration, sources tell CNN, posing a significant challenge for the new White House.
The Biden administration has promised to try to turn the Covid-19 pandemic around and drastically speed up the pace of vaccinating Americans against the virus. But in the immediate hours following Biden being sworn into office on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the new administration's Covid-related work told CNN one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy under former President Donald Trump, even weeks after multiple vaccines were approved for use in the United States.
"There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch," one source said.
Another source described the moment that it became clear the Biden administration would have to essentially start from "square one" because there simply was no plan as: "Wow, just further affirmation of complete incompetence."


Biden's Covid team is nervous about what the Trump team hasn't told them

The incoming White House now faces intense pressure to make good on the promises that Biden made during the campaign and the transition phase to drastically turn things around on the pandemic and conduct himself entirely differently from Trump when it comes to the virus and vaccine distribution. During the transition period, Biden was openly critical of what he described as a "dismal" rollout of the Covid vaccines under the Trump administration, making clear that he placed significant blame on his predecessor for the situation he would ultimately inherit.
Two Covid-19 vaccines were approved for use in the United States before Trump left office. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 16.5 million vaccine doses had been administered as of January 20 -- far short of the last administration's goal of administering 20 million vaccine doses by the end of 2020.
The new administration has asked some of the key players who worked on Covid and vaccines under Trump to resign from their roles, including Operation Warp Speed chief scientific adviser Moncef Slaoui and Surgeon General Jerome Adams. It has kept on others such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is now serving as Biden's chief medical adviser on Covid-19. Adams was asked to stay on as an adviser.
Prior to Inauguration Day, some of Biden's Covid-19 advisers had wanted to be careful not to be overly critical in public of the Trump administration's handling of the virus and vaccine, given that the Biden transition team was already having a hard time getting critical information and cooperation from the outgoing administration, the source said.
Now that the transition of power has taken place, the Biden administration is hoping that they can quickly start to get a clearer picture of where things actually stand with vaccine distribution and administration across the country, going through something of a "fact-checking" exercise on what exactly the Trump administration had and had not done, they added.
CNN has previously reported that the Biden team's most urgent concerns on Covid-19 include potential vaccine supply problems, coordination between federal and local governments, as well as funding, staffing and other resource needs for local governments. That is in addition to the emerging Covid variants, which the new White House -- in consultation with scientists and experts -- is watching warily.
Biden has made clear that slowing down the spread of Covid-19 and getting 100 million vaccine shots into Americans' arms in his first 100 days in office are of utmost priority -- goals that will shape whether Biden's first years in office are ultimately deemed successful.
Within hours of being sworn into office, Biden signed an executive order requiring masks on all federal property, a part of his campaign promise to push for a federal mask mandate during his first 100 days in office.
"This is going to be the first of many engagements we're going to have in here," Biden said in his first appearance in the Oval Office as president. "I thought with the state of the nation today there's no time to waste. Get to work immediately."
On Biden's first full day in office on Thursday, the White House is focusing on Covid-19 by rolling out a national strategy for getting the pandemic under control including numerous executive actions related to vaccination and testing.
Criticizing the "lack of cooperation" from the Trump administration as an "impediment" for the new administration, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters on Wednesday that he was still confident that the administration can meet its 100 million vaccine shots in 100 days target.
"For almost a year now, Americans could not look to the federal government for any strategy, let alone a comprehensive approach to respond to Covid," Zients said. "And we've seen the tragic costs of that failure. As President Biden steps into office today ... that'll change tomorrow."
This story has been updated with additional reporting.

Reality 'Starting to Sink In,' Says McKibben, After European Investment Bank Chief Admits 'Gas Is Over'

"There's nothing clean about gas—it's not a 'transition fuel' or a 'bridge fuel,' it's a dirty fossil fuel just like coal and oil," said Greenpeace EU. "It's time to stop bankrolling the #ClimateEmergency and stop public money back gas projects."

by

Jon Queally, staff writer

Published on

Thursday, January 21, 2021

by

Common Dreams

Members of the European Parliament rally against fracked gas in 2012. On Wednesday, the head of the European Investment Bank (EIB) declared "Gas is over" during a presentation of the bank's 2020 performance. (Credit: flickr / cc / greensefa)

Noted author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben was among the first to celebrate word that the president of the European Investment Bank on Wednesday openly declared, "To put it mildly, gas is over"—an admission that squares with what climate experts and economists have been saying for years if not decades.

Dr. Werner Hoyer, president of the EIB—the investment bank publicly owned by the European Union's member states—made the comments while presenting a review of the institution's 2020 operations at a press conference in Luxembourg.

Calling a future break with fracked gas "a serious departure from the past," Hoer added that "without the end to the use of unabated fossil fuels, we will not be able to reach the climate targets" to which the EU states—and therefore the bank—have committed.

McKibben and others responded to the comments as the most recent promising signal that the financial world is catching up with the climate science that demands a rapid and profound shift away from fossil fuels.

"President of the EIB, Werner Hoyer, clearly knows what's up," tweeted Oil Change International. "We agree. Time to #StopFundingFossils."

Greenpeace EU also heralded the news and stated: "There's nothing clean about gas—it's not a 'transition fuel' or a 'bridge fuel,' it's a dirty fossil fuel just like coal and oil.  It's time to stop bankrolling the #ClimateEmergency and stop public money back gas projects."

According to EurActiv:

The EU aims to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and is expected to adopt a new carbon reduction target of -55% for 2030. However, gas has remained a grey area, with the  European Commission saying it will still be needed to help coal-reliant EU member states transition away from fossil fuels.

Under their climate bank roadmap published in 2020, the EIB plans to use 50% of its activity to support climate and environmental sustainability, unlocking €1 trillion for green funding by 2030. It will also ensure that all activity is aligned with the Paris Agreement.

Others emphasized what a historic shift the comment represents from even just a few years ago:

While many European climate groups and financial watchdogs have criticized the EU member states and the EIB itself for not moving forward fast enough with proposed reforms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Hoyer said Wednesday that the shift away from fossil fuels is paramount and that even the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc across the continent must not act as a roadblock.

"We have achieved unprecedented impact on climate, preparing the ground for much more," Hoyer said in his remarks. "But the risk of a recovery that neglects climate and the environment remains."

"The fight against climate change cannot wait until the pandemic is over," he added. "The [Covid-19] crisis is not a reason to stop tackling the climate and environmental challenges facing humanity."

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Big Oil Takes Unsteady Steps to Cut Transition Risk

Tim Quinson
Wed, January 20, 2021

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(Bloomberg) --

Of the biggest U.S. oil and gas companies, EOG Resources Inc. is the least prepared for a low-carbon economy, according to BloombergNEF.

That’s based on an analysis of the company’s business-model transition risk. The overall research focuses on which companies are developing low-carbon revenue streams by investing in renewables; whether (or not) they’re expanding their fossil-fuel operations; and how threatened their current business is to the potential decline in oil demand.


EOG, the largest shale-focused independent oil company, scored the worst, partly because pure exploration and production companies face more transition risk, according to BNEF. Integrated companies tend to have stronger financial positions and a greater variety of skills that enable them to invest in and develop low-carbon businesses.

Investment in scalable, low-carbon business models is the most important part of BNEF’s score, said Jonas Rooze, BNEF’s head of sustainability research.

“EOG is doing nothing in areas like clean energy, hydrogen or carbon capture, as far as we can tell,” Rooze said. The company has poor scores on all its transition activities, he said.

In response to the BNEF assessment, Houston-based EOG said its long-term strategic planning process involves an analysis of “market forces that present risks and opportunities to our business plans and strategy.” The company said it has set up the EOG Sustainable Power Group to identify and implement low-emissions electricity generation to reduce its “carbon footprint with favorable economics,” including the recent startup of an eight-megawatt solar and natural gas hybrid electric power station.

Chevron Corp. is in the best position relative to its biggest U.S. competitors, such as Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum Corp., according to the study. The company is exploring renewables, electric-vehicle charging and battery systems, and making some clean-energy acquisitions. Its activities in carbon capture and storage in particular rival the best in the world, Rooze said. Last week, Chevron said it’s investing in a California startup that captures carbon dioxide from factories and then converts the greenhouse gas into gravel and other building materials.

Chevron still lags far behind European rivals, including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SE and Equinor ASA, in most other investment areas, Rooze said. Where Chevron is installing dozens of megawatts of renewables or EV charging points, the European companies are installing hundreds or even thousands in some cases, he said.

BloombergNEF is working with Bloomberg Intelligence (BI), both of which are research centers within Bloomberg LP, on climate transition scores for 39 major oil and gas companies. The scores are designed for investors to identify companies most threatened by accelerating global climate action and technological transformation, and to understand the material transition factors affecting the industry.

BI is focused on the companies’ current carbon performance and future targets, while BNEF examines transition risks posed by current business models and how companies are adapting their models.

It’s not all about whether a company is engaging with low-carbon technologies. For example, in the face of declining oil demand, companies are more likely to be forced to write down the value of their reserves if they’re unable to produce it competitively, or if it will take them many years to produce all of it. Meanwhile, companies like EOG that devote significant funds to high-carbon activities rather than transition to cleaner energy are actively increasing their transition risk, Rooze said.

“Setting up low-carbon businesses represents the opportunity side of the equation,” he said. “But these are still oil and gas companies and you can't measure the risks without getting to grips with that.”

Sustainable Finance in Brief

Investors managing more than $2 trillion of assets are calling on world leaders to address the “unfolding humanitarian crisis at sea” where marine workers are stranded due to border closures and restrictions on movement imposed to contain Covid-19. Fidelity Investments and Capital Group ranked the worst of the world’s 10 biggest asset managers last year on pushing high-carbon emitters to curb their role in global warming. China is set to post the fastest growth in Asia for environmental, social and governance investments after the country boosted exchange-traded fund assets 18-fold in the past two years. Total SE became the first oil major to quit the influential American Petroleum Institute due to a clash on climate change policy. Allianz SE may cut investments in stocks and bonds issued by emissions-intensive companies as it steers away from businesses that foment global warming.

Bloomberg Green publishes the Good Business newsletter every Wednesday, providing unique insights on climate-conscious investing and the frontiers of sustainability.

 Greta Thunberg perfectly trolls Trump on his last day in office by using his own words against him

Greg Evans

Never let it be said that Greta Thunberg never misses her shot especially when she is making fun of Donald Trump. 

The teenage climate change activist has a long-running feud with the ongoing president mostly due to their opposing takes on the climate crisis. 

In the past the Trump had mocked Thunberg on Twitter, posting things such as “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” back in September 2019. At the time Thunberg briefly changed her Twitter bio to “A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.”

Unfortunately for Trump, lightning has struck twice, as Thunberg has returned to the well to mark Trump’s final departure from the White House. The president and first lady, Melania Trump left Washington DC on Wednesday morning by helicopter, as Trump has opted not to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony. 

The sight of Trump leaving the White House for the last ever time was celebrated by many but perhaps none were as good at Thunberg who used Trump’s own words against him again. She tweeted, “He seems like a very happy old man looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”

Too bad Trump is no longer on Twitter as he won’t get to see or respond to this. Needless to say, the rest of Twitter enjoyed the activist taking another swipe at Trump on his way out of office.

FOR MORE MEMES Trump: Greta Thunberg trolls president on his last day in office | indy100

Greta Thunberg

@GretaThunberg

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21h

He seems like a very happy old man looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!

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John Iadarola

@johniadarola

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20h

this makes me so happy right now

Greta Thunberg Mocks Ted Cruz, Welcomes U.S. Return to 'Pittsburgh Agreement'

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has mocked Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) after he criticized President Joe Biden's decision to rejoin the Paris climate agreement.

© JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg takes part in a Fridays For Future protest in front of the Swedish Parliament (Riksdagen) in Stockholm on September 25, 2020. Thunberg has mocked Senator Ted Cruz for his opposition to the Paris climate agreement.

"So happy that USA has finally rejoined the Pittsburgh Agreement. Welcome back!" Thunberg tweeted on Thursday in response to Cruz' comment, without mentioning him by name.

Cruz was one of many Republicans to take aim at Biden's executive order rejoining the international agreement aimed at tackling climate change, but his particular statement drew attention on social media.

"By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he's more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh," Cruz tweeted on Wednesday.

"This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans."

Many other Twitter users found Cruz's phrasing odd, and suggested he believed the Paris agreement was written by the residents of the French capital or its local government, rather than being an international agreement signed by 189 countries.

Others pointed out that the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania had publicly backed the agreement in 2017 in response to former President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the accord.


By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he’s more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh. This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans.— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 20, 2021

"As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future," Mayor Bill Peduto tweeted at the time.

Peduto, a Democrat, won election to a second term as mayor in 2017 and is due to remain in office until 2022. He highlighted the city's commitment to the Paris agreement again on Wednesday.

"Pittsburgh has exceeded our Paris commitments," Peduto said. "Recognized by @usmayors as National Environmental Initiative of 2020, we've met our 2030 goal of 100% renewable energy for city operations, ten years early. If we can do it in a city that is/was fueled by coal/nuclear, you can, too."

The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates the countries which participate in the Paris Agreement.© Statista Statista

Thunberg, who has been a frequent target for criticism from some conservatives, also mocked Trump as he left the White House for the last time on Wednesday in a tweet that was a callback to a comment the former president made about her.

"He seems like a very happy old man looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!" Thunberg tweeted, including a photo of Trump raising a first while boarding Marine One on the White House lawn.

Biden issued 15 executive orders on Wednesday and more are expected today. In addition to rejoining the Paris climate agreement, the U.S. has rejoined the World Health Organization (WHO).

Ted Cruz criticised for claiming Biden’s Paris Agreement reversal will ‘harm livelihoods of Americans’

The US senator said the agreement ‘will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans’ / REUTERS

By Leah Sinclair

Ted Cruz has been criticised for calling out Joe Biden’s decision to reverse the US’s withdrawal from the 2016 Paris Agreement to tackle climate change.

Following the inauguration on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Mr Biden issued 17 executive orders, undoing some of the policies enforced by predecessor Donald Trump, including the controversial decision to withdraw from the multilateral agreement.

The international treaty is considered the biggest global effort to curb climate change, which aims to limit global warming “well below” 2C compared to pre-industrial levels.

The agreement was signed by world leaders in Paris before Mr Trump pulled out of the deal in 2017.

Mr Cruz, who supported Mr Trump’s claims that the election was “stolen” by the Democrats, tweeted: “By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he’s more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburg

“This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans.”

The tweet from Mr Cruz ignited criticism for indicating that the resurgence of the deal will only benefit residents of the French capital despite it being a multinational treaty.

Among those calling out the Republican’s tweet was Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who sarcastically tweeted: “So happy that the USA has finally rejoined the Pittsburgh Agreement. Welcome back!”

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., also responded to Mr Cruz’s tweet, saying: "Quick question: do you also believe the Geneva Convention was about the views of the citizens of Geneva?"

Mr Cruz’s comments come as Mr Biden continues to make a number of changes, including an increase in coronavirus measures to tackle the pandemic.

Coronavirus has claimed over 406,000 lives according to Johns Hopkins University, and it’s believed Mr Biden is set to sign 10 executive orders to combat the widespread growth of the virus.

Mr Biden's Covid-19 task force coordinator, Jeff Zients, told reporters that under Mr Trump there was no clear strategy at a federal level.

"As President Biden steps into office today, that all changes," he said.

The Trump administration was widely criticised for its approach to handling the pandemic.

"The American people deserve an urgent, robust and professional response to the growing public health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak," an introduction to the plan said.

Their aim is to give 100 million vaccine doses by the end of April and to safely reopen schools within 100 days.

Community facilities and stadiums will also become vaccine centres and there will be a mandate to ensure those on federal government property are social distancing and wearing masks.