President Joe Biden will deliver his first primetime address to the nation Thursday night to mark the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 shutdowns that rocked the U.S., the White House said.
Speaking to reporters Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would use the address to “discuss the many sacrifices the American people have made over the last year and the grave loss communities and families across the country have suffered.”
Biden will also use the speech to “look forward, highlighting the role that Americans will play in beating the virus and moving the country toward getting back to normal.”
The address Thursday night will be Biden’s first in primetime to the U.S. It will come on March 11, marking almost exactly a full year since many businesses and schools switched to a remote-only schedule to protect Americans from COVID-19.
The address comes during a week of robust pandemic-related activity by the U.S. government. The House is expected to pass a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill later this week, finalizing the package and delivering money to individual Americans and families, as well as schools and local governments across the country. The Senate passed the bill on Saturday.
Psaki said Monday that the nation was “one huge step closer to passing one of the most consequential and most progressive pieces of legislation in American history” but that the White House was “taking nothing for granted.”
There have been more than 29 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S, although the number of new cases has largely stabilized or declined in much of the country. More than 527,000 people have died from the virus.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first public health guidance aimed at resuming some kind of normal activity for people who have received a full vaccine course, saying that such individuals may safely gather with small groups from other households without wearing masks or physical distancing, even if those people have not yet had their shots.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.