Joe Biden says he will ask all Americans to wear a mask for his first 100 days in office

Biden said he would order masks to be worn in federal buildings and public transport

Credit: Mark Makela /Getty

Coronavirus Article Bar with counter ..

Joe Biden has said he will ask all Americans to wear a face mask for the first 100 days of his presidency, saying the country will see a "significant reduction" in coronavirus cases. 

While Mr Biden does not have sweeping powers to introduce a national mask mandate, the president-elect said he would use what authority he had to require masks in places like federal buildings and on planes and buses. 

"Just 100 days to mask, not forever. 100 days. And I think we’ll see a significant reduction," Mr Biden told CNN on Thursday night, during his first joint interview with Kamala Harris, his Vice President, since winning the election.

Mr Biden said he had met Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, who has regularly faced a backlash from Donald Trump in his role as a White House adviser on the coronavirus. 

Dr Fauci has consistently urged Americans to wear face masks to halt the spread of Covid-19 and warned the country faces a bleak winter with infection rates increasing, contradicting Mr Trump who has insisted the US is rounding the corner on the pandemic. 

Anthony Fauci, the White House's top diseases expert, has urged Americans to wear masks

Credit: GETTY IMAGES

Mr Trump has also been infuriated by the popularity Dr Fauci enjoys among the American public, with several polls suggesting the disease expert is highly trusted and more popular than the US president. 

In his CNN interview, Mr Biden said he had asked Dr Fauci to stay on in his role, becoming his chief medical adviser and part of the incoming administration’s Covid-19 response team. 

Mr Biden also appeared to suggest he would not personally take a coronavirus vaccine until Dr Fauci indicated that a vaccine was safe. 

Coronavirus USA Spotlight Chart — cases default

At that point, Mr Biden said he will be "happy" to receive a vaccine and in a public forum to demonstrate his confidence in it.

"When Dr Fauci says we have a vaccine that is safe that’s the moment in which I will stand before the public," he said.

"People have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work. Already the numbers are really staggeringly low, and it matters what the President and Vice President do."