US President Joe Biden has begun to undo some of Donald Trump’s key policies, hours after being sworn in, the BBC reports.
“There is no time to waste when it comes to tackling the crises we face,” he tweeted as he headed to the White House following his inauguration.
President Biden signed 15 executive orders, firstly to boost the federal response to the coronavirus crisis.
Other orders reverse the Trump administration’s stance on climate change and immigration.
President Biden “will take action – not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration – but also to start moving our country forward,” a statement detailing the executive orders said.
A series of measures will be enacted to tackle the coronavirus pandemic which has claimed more than 400,000 lives in the US.
There will be a mandate to wear masks and practise social distancing on all federal government property.
A new office will be set up to co-ordinate the response to the pandemic and the US will halt the process – begun by the Trump administration – of withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Mr Biden has also pledged to make the fight against climate change a top priority of his administration.
He signed an executive order beginning the process of rejoining the 2015 Paris climate agreement, from which Mr Trump formally withdrew the US last year.
Mr Biden’s climate envoy, former US Secretary of State John Kerry, tweeted that the commitment set “a floor, not a ceiling” for America’s climate leadership and urged international co-operation ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (Cop26) in Glasgow in November.
