Kemi Osukoya
January 4, 2021
The Biden inaugural committee on Sunday said in a statement that the inaugural events for incoming President Joe Biden and incoming Vice President Kamala Harris on January 20 will be a scaled-down events that eschews the customary inaugural parade, replacing part of the event with a made-for-television visual parade dubbed “Visual Parade across America” that will feature musical arts, marching bands, dance troupe and essential workers from across the nation.
This year’s inaugural pageantry stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue, where incoming U.S. President and Vice President, along with their spouses walk from Capitol Hill down to the White House waving to supporters, has been shelved, replaced by a shorter military escort from the Capital Hill to the White House.
The visual parade, a series of short videos put together, will be produced by the team that produced the Democratic National Convention with emphasis on highlighting everyday regular citizens’ heroic acts as a way to honor the inaugural traditions, while also keeping everyone safe, said Tony Allen, Chief Executive officer of the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
The changes to the inaugural events are due to spikes in COVID-19 pandemic and the national health safety measures that are currently in place across the nation to stop the virus spread.
The U.S. as well as the rest of the world is in the midst of a global health pandemic that started a little over a year ago in Wuhan, China and swiftly spread to the rest of the world, infecting more than 80 million people globally and leaving nearly 2 millions people dead in its wake. Research and development for therapeutics treatments and vaccines are underway or have been approved. The U.S. has the largest number of COVID-19 infection and death.
Last month, two vaccines—one produced by Prizer/ BioNTech and the other by Moderna were approved by the United Kingdom and the U.S. to treat and prevent the spread of the virus. Inoculations have began among population. Other vaccines are in trials or awaiting approvals.
The President-elect has also urged citizens not to travel to the Capitol and watch the event at home.
After Biden, as the new commander-in-chief, completes his formal review of military troops at the East front of the Capital Hill, he then will receive a military escort from 15th Street NW across to the White House.
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