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United States President Joe Biden delivers a speech in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on July 29, 2021.

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President Joe Biden signed an order on Wednesday blocking the forced deportation of many Hong Kong residents from the United States for 18 months and giving them a “temporary safe haven” from ongoing Chinese repression in the region, the White House said.

The order allows Hong Kong residents whose U.S. visas have expired and who are otherwise legally removable to remain in the United States.

Biden on Wednesday also directed the Department of Homeland Security to legally work in the United States for Hong Kong residents subject to the order.

“With politically motivated arrests and trials, media silence, and the shrinking space for elections and democratic opposition, we will continue to take steps to support the people of Hong Kong,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a written statement.

The order imposing memorandum signed by Biden also states that China has undermined “the enjoyment of rights and freedoms” in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, including those protected by the so-called Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Since June 2020, when China unilaterally imposed its national security law on Hong Kong, police in the semi-autonomous region have detained at least 100 opposition politicians, activists and protesters on charges under the law, the memo said.

In addition, police arrested more than 10,000 people in connection with protests against the government.

China’s action came in response to the anti-government protests that began in Hong Kong in 2019.

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“There are compelling foreign policy reasons to postpone the forced exit of Hong Kong residents currently in the United States,” the memo said.

“The United States is committed to a foreign policy that combines our democratic values with our foreign policy goals that focus on defending democracy and promoting human rights around the world,” the memo reads.

“Providing a safe haven for Hong Kong residents who have been deprived of their guaranteed freedoms in Hong Kong promotes US interests in the region.”

Biden’s order applies to Hong Kong residents currently in the United States, with certain exceptions.

These exceptions include those who cannot be admitted or deported to the United States under immigration law, those convicted of one or more offenses in the United States, and those whose presence is not in the interests of the United States

Senator Ben Sasse, the Republican from Nebraska who tabled a bill last year that automatically grants asylum to Hong Kong residents in the US, said Biden’s order was “a solid step, but we need to go further.”

“We must offer full asylum to Hong Kong people who are fleeing the brutal repression of Chairman Xi,” said Sasse, referring to the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jingping.

“America must stand firmly behind the victims of communism and show the world that we will always stand up for freedom around the world.”

Rite Aid CEO Heyward Donigan told CNBC on Thursday she’s “cautiously optimistic” the U.S. would avoid another round of strict Covid restrictions despite the presence of the delta variant.

“We all hope that enough people get vaccinated that we don’t have the variant become so significant that our markets shut down again,” Donigan said on “Squawk Box.”

Even so, the chief executive said the drug store chain was being judicious with its financial projections due, in part, to how unpredictable the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on business has been.

Shares of Rite Aid sank roughly 14% on Thursday, sending the company’s stock market value under $1 billion, as Wall Street digested mixed first-quarter results and weaker earnings guidance.

Rite Aid’s forecast for adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — came in at $440 million and $480 million in fiscal year 2022, below estimates of $524 million, according to FactSet.

“We’re being very cautious because we had a miss last quarter due to the complete meltdown, I’ll call it, of cough, cold, flu — both in the pharmacy and in the front end because there just was no cough, cold, flu,” Donigan said, alluding to the recent surprisingly calm flu season in the U.S. and its impact on Rite Aid.

“We just didn’t realize how far down, how evaporated that business would actually be. So as we look forward, we think we need to be very cautious and prudent in our guidance,” said Donigan, who has been CEO of Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid since August 2019.

“We are expecting some improvement. We’re not expecting full improvement,” Donigan added.

She also acknowledged, “It’s very hard, it remains very hard to predict, a full-year result in a retail pharmacy in the middle of a pandemic because we are … still in the throes of this to some degree.”

The company projected full-year revenue of between $25.1 billion and $25.5 billion, which exceeded Wall Street’s expectations of $24.66 billion, according to FactSet.

Rite Aid’s outlook is not factoring in potential Covid vaccine boosters or vaccinations for children under the age of 12, Donigan noted. Trials examining the vaccine in kids under age 12 are currently ongoing.

The Food and Drug Administration cleared Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for use in kids ages 12 to 15 a little more than a month ago. Moderna, which also makes a two-dose vaccine, has asked the FDA to expand its emergency use authorization to cover adolescents from 12 to 17.