On Saturday, President elect Joe Biden vowed to name a group of top scientists to his coronavirus task force on Monday.
After three days of record highs, 122,075 new cases were recorded over 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University, a record in itself for a weekend.
Biden said: “On Monday I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisors to help take the Biden-Harris plan and convert it into an actual blueprint that will start on January 20, 2021.”
The pledge came in his first speech since being projected as the winner of the presidential election, signaling that he plans to prioritize the pandemic from the outset.
Biden has placed his pandemic response plan at the center of his appeal to the American people, repeatedly rebuking President Donald Trump for grossly mishandling the public health response.
The US is the world’s hardest hit country in terms of deaths and total infections, which now stand at more than 9.8 million.
