US House passes $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan

People enjoy a warm evening at a restaurant in Manhattan following days of cold temperatures and snow in New York. Pic/AFP

President Joe Biden scored his first legislative win as the House of Representatives passed his $1.9 trillion Coronavirus relief package early on Saturday, hailed by Democrats as a critical step in funneling new funding toward vaccinations, overburdened local governments, and millions of families devastated by the pandemic.

Days after the COVID-19 death toll surpassed 5,00,000 in the United States, the sprawling measure backed by President Joe Biden and seen as a moral imperative by many, now heads to the Senate for consideration next week.

"After 12 months of death and despair, the American recovery begins tonight," congressman Brendan Boyle told the House chamber shortly before lawmakers approved the package on an rare post-midnight vote of 219 to 212.

No Republicans voted for the bill. The sharply partisan result comes weeks after Biden's January 20 inauguration, when he called for unity in the face of a once-in-a-century health crisis.

The package cleared the House despite a major setback for Democrats, when a key Senate official ruled that the final version of the bill cannot include a minimum wage hike.

Biden had campaigned extensively on raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour, from a rate of $7.25 that has stood since 2009. He aimed to include it in the rescue plan, which directly provides $1,400 checks to most Americans and allots billions of dollars to boost vaccine delivery, and fund state and local governments.

It extends unemployment benefits, set to expire mid-March, by about six months, as well as a moratorium on evictions for millions of people struggling to pay rent.

The bill is on track to be the second largest US stimulus ever, after the $2 trillion package Donald Trump signed last March to fight the pandemic's devastating spread. Republicans fumed over the bill's historically high cost. The package "just throws out money without accountability," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy added.

Auckland back under lockdown
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Saturday that the country's biggest city, Auckland, will be put into a seven-day lockdown from Sunday after a Coronavirus community case of unknown origin was recorded. The lockdown, with level 3 restrictions, will allow people to leave home only for essential work. The rest of New Zealand will be put into level 2 restrictions that limit public gatherings, among others, she added. In mid-February, Auckland plunged into a snap three-day lockdown after a family of three were diagnosed with the UK variant of COVID-19.

Quarantine fatigue, a challenge in Greece a year after 1st case
Quarantine fatigue is one of the most significant challenges in Greece a year after the first COVID-19 case was detected in the country, Greek experts and pollsters said on Friday. Greece's first confirmed infection was diagnosed on February 26, 2020. A year later, the country has been in a nationwide lockdown, which was imposed since November 7 and extended by one more week on Friday as the epidemiological load remains heavy in many regions, officials said. According to the latest data provided by the National Public Health Organisation, the majority of mutant strains identified in Greece so far, or 1,019, concern the one that was first detected in Britain. The country has recorded 6,439 deaths so far.

11,40,84,950
TOTAL Number OF CORONAVIRUS

CASES IN THE WORLD

25,31,271
Number OF DEATHS WORLDWIDE

8,96,30,616
Number OF RECOVERED PATIENTS