President-elect Joe Biden warned the “darkest days” of the coronavirus pandemic were still to come and called on Congress to be ready early next year to produce another stimulus package, even though the most recent one took months to complete, Bloomberg News reported. “Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us,” he said at a year-end news conference in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden said that the country needs to support state and local governments, which have seen resources plunge during the pandemic, and also offer other economic stimulus. When pressed for what he wanted in the next round of stimulus, Biden refused to specify a dollar amount or predict the outcome. Biden said he expected Congress to provide enough money to vaccinate 300 million Americans, provide unemployment insurance, put in place eviction moratoriums, fund protective equipment for front-line health care workers and provide more direct payments.
