Joe Biden expands Covid-19 team as US cases hit 230,000 a day record

Xavier Becerra will be the first Latino secretary for health and human services

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra talks to reporters after a news conference at UCLA. President-elect Joe Biden has picked Mr Becerra to be his health secretary. AP Photo

Joe Biden plans to nominate California attorney-general Xavier Becerra for secretary of health and human services, which would add another Latino member to the president-elect's  diverse cabinet, US media reported.

During Mr Becerra's 12 terms in Congress representing Los Angeles, he was an outspoken advocate of Latino rights.

He was also a vigorous defender of former president Barack Obama's signature health care programme. The policy, colloquially known as Obamacare, has been much attacked by President Donald Trump and Republicans.

NBC, The New York Times and several other news organisations reported on the plan to nominate Mr Becerra, citing anonymous sources close to the president-elect.

Mr Becerra, 62, was elected as California Attorney General in 2016, succeeding Vice President-elect Kamala Harris after she was elected to the US Senate. Mr Becerra was the first Latino to hold that office.

While in office, he also defended the immigrant rights programme DACA in front of the Supreme Court.

According to the Times, Mr Becerra's nomination comes after complaints from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about a lack of Latinos in the incoming cabinet.

Mr Biden has announced Cuban-born Alejandro Mayorkas as his pick to head the Department of Homeland Security.

If confirmed, Mr Becerra would be tasked with leading the department amid the coronavirus pandemic that has killed over 282,000 in the US.

For the third day in a row, the United States on Saturday notched a record number of coronavirus cases in 24 hours, reaching nearly 230,000 new infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Mr Biden has stressed that he would strive for diversity while choosing staff for when he takes office in January.

In addition to Becerra, other firsts include the first female Treasury secretary, the first female head of intelligence and the first Latino chief of Homeland Security.

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Gallery: Covid-19 one year on

Staff from the Wuhan Hygiene Emergency Response Team conduct searches on the closed Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the city of Wuhan at the start of the outbreak on January 11, 2020. AFP

A woman leaves the Wuhan Medical Treatment Centre, where a man who died from a respiratory illness was confined on January 12, 2020. A 61-year-old man is thought to be the first person to die. AFP

A woman wears a plastic water bottle with a cutout to cover her face, as she walks on a footbridge in Hong Kong on January 31, 2020, as a preventative measure following a virus outbreak which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan.. AFP

An empty Times Square is seen on the street following the outbreak of coronavirus in New York City, U.S., March 18, 2020. Reuters

A nurse wearing protective mask and gear comforts another as they change shifts on March 13, 2020 at the Cremona hospital, southeast of Milan. AFP

A woman takes part in an online pilates class at home in Nicosia, Cyprus, as restrictions on movement and social distancing were imposed across the island nation. AFP

A woman standing on her balcony, reaches out to catch a rose delivered to her via a drone on Mother's day, in the Lebanese coastal city of Jounieh, north of the capital Beirut on March 21, 2020. AFP

Police inspector Rajesh Babu, wearing a coronavirus-themed helmet, speaks to a family during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown on March 28, 2020. AFP

Healthcare workers wearing face masks and protective suits acknowledge applause outside the Hospital de Barcelona on April 13, 2020 in Barcelona, during a national lockdown. AFP

A racoon walks in a deserted Central Park in Manhattan on April 16, 2020 in New York City. Gone are the softball games, horse-drawn carriages and hordes of tourists. AFP

A woman in a mask walks past a mural of a hand on the side of a building in Midtown New York City April 22, 2020. AFP

View of the Intensive Care Unit at the Gilberto Novaes Hospital in Manaus, Brazil, on May 20, 2020. AFP

An Iraqi man in a hazmat suit takes pictures of a relative's tombstone at a cemetery for Covid-19 victims, 20 km from the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf, on June 10, 2020. AFP

Irish Paralympic hopeful Leo Hynes, who is blind, trains in his home-made training pool in his front garden at home in Tuam, Co Galway, west Ireland, on June 18, 2020. AFP

The Uceli Quartet perform for an audience made of plants during a concert created by Spanish artist Eugenio Ampudia and that will be later streamed to mark the reopening of the Liceu Grand Theatre in Barcelona on June 22, 2020 following a national lockdown. AFP

A lab technician operates a laser machine that tests rapid DPI blood tests at Dubai's Mina Rashid screening centre on August 26, 2020. Chris Whiteoak / The National

An Aymara indigenous woman wears a face mask as she offers cleaning products for sale at the Rodriguez Market in La Paz, Bolivia, on September 1, 2020, AFP

A worker disinfects footballs before the closed-door Copa Libertadores group phase football match between Colombia's Junior and Ecuador's Barcelona at the Roberto Melendez Stadium in Barranquilla, Colombia, on September 30, 2020. AFP

A patient infected with coronavirus lies in an intensive care room of the Estree Private Hospital in Stains, on the outskirts of Paris on November 12, 2020. AFP

A protestor holding a placard is spoken to by police officers as she attends an anti-vaccine demonstration outside the offices of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in central London on November 24, 2020. AFP