Biden vows free Covid vaccine for 'everyone'

Wilmington: Democrat Joe Biden said on Friday that if elected President he would mandate coronavirus vaccines be free for all Americans, part of a national strategy to "get ahead of this virus."

"Once we have a safe and effective vaccine, it has to be free to everyone -- whether or not you're insured," Biden said in a speech laying out his pandemic response plan just 11 days before the US presidential election.

President Donald Trump, who trails Biden in the polls, has also stressed that a vaccine -- which he says will be ready in the coming weeks -- should be free. But Democrats led by Biden have hammered Trump for failing to lay out and implement a nationwide response to a pandemic that has now killed more than 223,000 Americans.

More than 220,000 Americans have lost their lives, which is more than one-fifth of the total global death, Biden said in a major policy speech on the coronavirus, a day after the final presidential debate he had with the Republican incumbent Donald Trump. Biden blamed the policies of Trump for the deadly spread of the virus that has had a devastating impact on the country's economy.

"Covid-19 dwarfs anything that we've faced in recent history, and it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. The virus is surging in almost every state," Biden said in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware.

"We're more than eight months into this crisis and the president still doesn't have a plan," the 77-year-old former vice president said. "He's given up. He's quit on you. He's quit on your family. He's quit on America."