President Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th US president on Wednesday, delivering a calming call to heal a nation riven by festering divisions that had grown deeper under four years of Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden is expected to unveil his administration’s plans to tackle the coronavirus crisis, as he starts his first full day in the White House with America confronting a slew of challenges.

He has halted the US exit from the World Health Organization, stopped construction of Trump’s cherished wall on the Mexican border, and rescinded a ban on visitors from several Muslim-majority nations.

Biden’s presidency will initially be shaped by his response to Covid-19, which has killed more than 400,000 people in the US, and the associated economic emergency.

He will look to move quickly on coordinating a federal plan to combat the virus, which for months ran rampant across the country as the Trump administration bungled its response.

Biden is expected to outline his administration’s plans later Thursday after he is briefed by his Covid-19 team.