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Joe Biden
Photo: KEVIN LAMARQUE / REUTERS
The future US President Joe Biden wants to launch a new corona aid package worth 1.9 trillion dollars (almost 1.6 billion euros).
Among other things, direct payments decided in December are to be increased from $ 600 to millions of US citizens to $ 2,000, as announced by employees of the Biden team.
Also planned are $ 20 billion for a "national vaccination program" and $ 350 billion in aid for cities and states.
In December, the US Congress launched an aid package worth around $ 900 billion (around 740 billion euros), which also included $ 600 payments to US citizens.
However, in view of the severity of the economic crisis as a result of the corona pandemic, experts criticized the measures as inadequate.
Biden's "American rescue plan" includes, among other things, new checks for millions of citizens in the amount of $ 1,400.
This will increase the direct payments to a total of $ 2,000.
Biden wants to present his plans in detail on Thursday evening (local time) in his hometown of Wilmington.
The 78-year-old US Democrat, who will take office next Wednesday, has made the fight against the corona pandemic his most urgent task.
For the new aid package, Biden needs the approval of Congress.
His Democrats control the House of Representatives and from next week also the Senate, but the majority in the House of Lords is extremely tight.
The USA is the country with the highest number of confirmed corona infections and corona deaths worldwide.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 23 million infections have been registered, and more than 387,000 people have died as a result of an infection.
The pandemic has also plunged the US economy into a serious crisis.
Millions of people lost their jobs.
After easing in the summer, the crisis worsened again in recent months.
In March, in view of the economic crisis, Congress passed the largest aid package in US history, worth $ 2.2 trillion.
Funding was topped up in April with a further aid program.
After that, Democrats and Republicans argued for months over new aid.
The agreement was only reached in December, weeks after the November 3rd presidential election.
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