Fresh off election victory, Biden turns to virus response

BOSTON (AP) — As he begins his transition to the presidency, Joe Biden is pivoting from a bitter campaign battle to another, more pressing fight: reining in the pandemic that has hit the world’s most powerful nation harder than any other.

The U.S. is now averaging more than 100,000 new infections a day, frequently breaking records for daily cases. Hospitals in several states are running out of space and staff, and the death toll is soaring.

Public health officials warn that the nation is entering the worst stretch yet for COVID-19 as winter sets in and the holiday season approaches, increasing the risk of rapid transmission as Americans travel, shop and celebrate with loved ones.

“The next two months are going to be rough, difficult ones,” said Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease specialist and department chairman at the Yale School of Public Health. “We could see another 100,000 deaths by January.”

So far, the U.S. has recorded more than 9.8 million infections and more than 237,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Biden announced Sunday that former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy and former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler will serve as co-chairs of a coronavirus working group to be rolled out Monday.

The group will be tasked with taking the virus proposals that Biden released during the campaign and turning them into a blueprint the new president can enact after he is inaugurated in January.

Biden pledged during the campaign to make testing free and widely available; to hire thousands of health workers to help implement contact-tracing programs; and to instruct the Centers for Disease Control to provide clear, expert-informed guidelines, among other proposals.

As the Democratic nominee, Biden made President Donald Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic a...