State Dept. condemns arrests, repression in Russia

Biden and Harris, alongside their spouses and five family members, began the day in the White House State Dining Room with a virtual inaugural prayer service broadcast from the Washington National Cathedral.

Four large television screens were set up showing the prayer while the group bowed their heads. Patti LaBelle then sang the “The Star-Spangled Banner” and everyone rose to their feet and put their hands over their hearts.

Biden, a devout Catholic and only the second Catholic president, is not shy about invoking his faith. In his first act as president after taking the oath of office Wednesday, he asked the nation to join together in silent prayer.

-ABC News' Ben Gittleson

Biden's first full day in office is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, with the president set to deliver afternoon remarks and take 10 executive actions aimed to help get the pandemic under control.

Those actions include eight executive orders to trigger the the Defense Production Act to manufacture COVID-19 supplies, require masks in airports and on interstate transportation, require international travelers to the U.S. receive a negative COVID-19 test before arrival, establish a testing board, develop more treatments and vaccines, work to overcome the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on minority communities, provide guidelines to reopen schools -- as well as a presidential memorandum to reimburse schools for supplies from FEMA funds -- create guidelines to protect workers from exposure, and increase collection and analysis.

His two other actions expected Thursday are a presidential memorandum directing FEMA to increase state reimbursements from 75% to 100% for National Guard personnel and supply costs and a presidential directive to support the international COVID-19 response, which the Biden team is calling an effort to restore America’s leadership on the world stage.

-ABC News' Molly Nagle and Justin Gomez

Continuing its theme that the Biden administration is "hitting the ground running," White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced she'll be joined by the nation's top expert on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, at her afternoon press briefing in Biden's first full day in office.

"I will also be bringing Dr. Fauci to the briefing room today as part of our effort to ensure that we're having public health experts, medical experts leading our communication about the process that is under way to get the pandemic under control," Psaki told MSNBC Thursday morning.

Fauci stopped appearing at White House briefings after he fell out of favor with President Trump.

Psaki told reporters at her first press briefing on Inauguration Day she plans to hold daily White House briefings Monday through Friday.

Psaki said in preparing for her new position, Biden told her that "he would be watching" her briefings, and she said that it’s a major priority for the president that her messaging "really comes from the top." 

With the first day focused on the pandemic, Psaki told CBS conversations between administration officials with counterparts on Capitol Hill on Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package kicked off before the president took his oath of office and that those will continue "with speed in the days ahead" now that the administration is in place.

She also stressed the new administration wants to level with the American people that getting the pandemic until control is "going to take months and months."

-ABC News' Jordyn Phelps

Biden is waking up in the White House for the first time as 46th president of the United States and Vice President Kamala Harris to the fact that for the first time in American history a woman is serving as vice president.

After a historic inauguration, they'll start the day alongside their spouses with an inaugural prayer service from the Washington National Cathedral but attending virtually from the White House Blue Room. Their first full day in office will focus on the coronavirus pandemic, with Biden set to deliver afternoon remarks on his administration's COVID-19 response, take 10 executive actions aimed to control the pandemic and receive a COVID-19 briefing.

Ahead of introducing what it has deemed the "National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness," the Biden administration addressed other top priorities overnight including moving to halt deportations of certain non-citizens for 100 days to review immigration policies. The president on Wednesday took at least 15 executive actions from invoking a mask mandate on federal properties and reversing now former President Donald Trump's Muslim ban to moving to rejoin both the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord, barreling faster to dismantle his predecessor's legacy than other modern presidents.

Biden and Harris are taking office amid a racial-justice reckoning, a struggling economy and with the systems of government having come under literal attack by supporters of the man they defeated. While Wednesday's inaugural festivities saw powerful musical performances and poetry, amid history-making formalities, the surreal fact lingered: They took the office on the same Capitol steps that violent pro-Trump protesters climbed to storm the halls of Congress precisely two weeks earlier.

In the wake of the seige and in their first days of office, Biden and Harris will also have to contend with Trump's impeachment trial which will be taken up in the newly Democratic Senate as soon as the end of this week, competing for floor time with their legislative agenda and Cabinet confirmations.