Any package passed in the lame-duck session is not going to be enough overall. It’s critical but it’s just a start. Congress is going to need to act again in January

Wilmington, Delaware: President-elect Joe Biden said Friday’s “grim” jobs report shows the economic recovery is stalling, and urged the US Congress to pass a coronavirus relief bill immediately and follow up with “hundreds of billions of dollars” in more aid in January.

“If we don’t act now, the future will be very bleak. Americans need help and they need it now. And they need more to come early next year,” said Biden, who takes office on January 20.

A government report on Friday showed the labour market slowing in November as the Covid-19 pandemic eclipsed its levels of the spring. Some 179,124 new infections are reported each day, a record, and more than 276,000 Americans have died of the disease.

Biden, the Democratic former vice-president who defeated Republican President Donald Trump in the November election, offered backing for an emerging bipartisan package of around $908 billion in Covid-19 spending that has drawn tentative support from members of both parties in Congress.

Biden said he would press for more relief once he is in office.

“Any package passed in the lame-duck session is not going to be enough overall. It’s critical but it’s just a start. Congress is going to need to act again in January,” Biden told reporters in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

“We’re looking at hundreds of billions of dollars,” he said.

Biden said he expected Republicans to join Democrats in delivering more coronavirus relief because “they are going to find there is an overwhelming need”. He sidestepped questions about whether he has spoken to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell about negotiations.

The President-elect said he would not make the vaccines being developed for Covid-19 mandatory but hoped the public would develop confidence in them over time.

Biden has focused heavily on the pandemic and economy during the transition, after a campaign in which he made Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus a central theme and promised to make the pandemic his top priority in the White House.

He is expected to name Jeff Zients, a co-chair of his transition and a former Obama administration economic aide, as his coronavirus “czar” to coordinate the government's pandemic response and oversee an ambitious vaccine distribution effort, according to a person familiar with the matter.

He also said plans for his inauguration next month were being developed with safety in mind given the pandemic. He does not expect the traditional parade or crowds, he said, although there might be a public swearing-in ceremony along with more virtual activity around the country.

Biden, who earlier this week unveiled his economic team, faces pressure from congressional allies and advocacy groups to make ethnically diverse picks for the remaining slots in his administration.

Biden was set to meet the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, a long-running Black civil rights organisation, on Tuesday to discuss criticisms that his cabinet picks lacked the representation he promised. The League of United Latin American Citizens released a statement on Friday urging Biden and his transition team to take a fresh look at the voting clout of Latinos.