PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- As the U.S. hits record highs in daily coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths, President-elect Joe Biden says he'll be asking all Americans to wear a mask for his first 100 days in office.
Biden, who has been setting a different tone from President Donald Trump on mask wearing, made the remarks during a joint interview with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on CNN on Thursday.
"I'm gonna ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just 100 days to mask, not forever, 100 days," he told CNN's Jake Tapper. "And I think we'll see a significant reduction that occurs with vaccinations and masking to drive down the numbers considerably."
There are at least a dozen states that have no mask requirements. There may be recommendations but no widespread mandate.
Biden, during the campaign and now in the transition period, has said he would talk to governors and local officials about instituting mask mandates -- which he says he as president will not have the authority to do on a national level. He did say, on Thursday, that he would do what he could federally.
"Where the federal government has authority, I'm going to issue a standing order that in federal buildings you have to be masked. And in transportation, interstate transportation, you must be masked -- in airplanes, buses, etc."
According to figures from The COVID Tracking Project, the U.S. had 210,161 new cases on Thursday along with 100,667 hospitalizations. Those numbers are about double what they were a month prior. The country's death toll, as of Thursday, is 267,228 according to the tracking project, while Johns Hopkins University had a higher figure of 276,401.
Health officials say community spread, in which those without symptoms pass on the virus to others, is a major driver of the fall and winter surge. They continue to emphasize mitigation efforts, especially mask wearing.
In the latest projections, released Friday, the influential IHME model out of the University of Washington projects the U.S. death toll could reach 538,893 by April 1st. However, if mask wearing bumps up from the current 71% to 95%, then 66,000 lives could be saved.
In the interview, Biden also said he would get vaccinated publicly if Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts say the shots are safe. Former Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton have said they would do the same.
