As of March 7, it has been 46 days since Joe Biden took office as the 46th President of the United States.  Throughout his campaign as well as following his victory in the November election, Biden pledged to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new president was tasked with addressing the current COVID-19 pandemic that has taken the lives of half a million people in the U.S. One of the more pressing parts of relief for the American people was a new stimulus package getting passed. With the victory in the Georgia Senate runoffs over Republican incumbents, the Democrats who, along with gaining the presidency, also gained a 50-50 majority in the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote.

With the new unified government under Democratic leadership, the possibility of a relief bill being passed became much less challenging. Since Jan. 20, there have now been two relief packages that have been completed, with one recently being passed by the Senate, and signed by Biden.  The newest 1.9 trillion-dollar relief bill included a stimulus check of $1,400, as well as vaccine funds.  Biden had floated the idea of including an increase of the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 in the more recent COVID-19 relief package. This proposition, however, was not passed through the Senate.

The Biden administration has also presided over the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, with Biden announcing this week that the plan is to have vaccines available for all adults by the end of May. The vaccination process will continue over the next few months in order to combat the virus until it is controlled enough for things to go back to normal. The most common vaccines currently being administered are the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which both have two doses for each person. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which administers one dose, was also recently approved by the FDA.