The former Democratic vice president has dismissed the Republican incumbent's unlikely challenge to his victory and announced Ron Klain as his first major appointment as White House chief of staff. The ongoing surge in daily coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the United States has shifted the focus of the presidential transition to the pandemic, which has worsened since the election on Nov. 3. Trump will remain in office until Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20, with foreign allies congratulating Biden on his win. The Elders, a group of former world leaders led by former Irish President Mary Robinson, have urged Trump to accept defeat, expressing concerns about the impact on American democracy. The focus is now expected to shift to Biden's selections for Cabinet positions, although aides have not given many hints about when announcements will be made. Antony Blinken, a diplomat and longtime confidant, is considered a potential candidate for secretary of state or national security adviser. The treasury secretary will need to address a recession, high unemployment, and work on addressing wealth inequality, climate change, and other important issues. Klain, who previously served as Democratic President Barack Obama's "Ebola czar" during the 2014 outbreak in West Africa, is anticipated to play a key role in the Biden administration's response to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases nationwide. Biden is bringing in Klain, a trusted and experienced operator who also served as a top aide to Democratic Vice President Al Gore during Bill Clinton's administration. Gore told Reuters that he was always well-informed and provided advice based on a strong understanding of the policy process, the quality of arguments, and the political and justice context. The United States set new records on Wednesday with over 142,000 new coronavirus cases and nearly 65,000 hospitalizations. The death toll rose by 1,464, nearing levels seen during the first wave earlier this year. Biden has secured enough battleground states to exceed the 270 electoral votes needed in the Electoral College, and is also leading the popular vote by over 5.2 million votes, or 3.4 percentage points, with some states still counting ballots. Ever since major news organizations declared Biden the winner of the election on Saturday, Trump has kept a light public schedule and instead used Twitter to express his grievances. He has not addressed the increasing number of virus cases across the country. Trump's main focus has been on trying to overturn the election results in closely contested states, despite lacking evidence of any irregularities that could impact the outcome. He has faced skepticism from judges. His team has been actively fundraising for legal challenges, with donations of more than $8,000 going towards financing election challenges. Smaller donations will go to the Republican National Committee or a newly formed political action committee, which can be used for purposes like travel expenses or other political campaigns. Democrats have accused Trump of trying to undermine public trust in the US election system and discredit Biden's win. Trump's time in office has been characterized by political divisions and the breaking of democratic norms. Edison Research has given Biden 279 electoral votes so far, with some news organizations including Arizona's 11 electoral votes in Biden's total. However, Edison Research has not yet called Arizona for Biden, despite his slight lead. Similarly, Biden is also leading in Georgia by a small margin. For Trump to stay in office, he would have to win Arizona and Georgia, as well as flip at least one state currently in Biden's favor before the Electoral College vote on December 14th. This is considered a very improbable situation. Trump mentioned on Twitter that if the total votes were audited, he would also win in Arizona. However, Arizona's Secretary of State Katie Hobbs stated that the margin was not narrow enough to warrant a recount. With almost 25,000 ballots still to be counted, Trump would need to secure 65 percent of those votes to surpass Biden's lead. Hobbs told CNN on Thursday that it is possible for errors to occur during the recount of Georgia's votes by hand, but he believes it is unlikely. Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, stated that despite the unlikelihood of finding errors from the previous machine count, the hand recount will provide an accurate tally of the vote totals. Raffensperger made these comments during an interview with Fox News Channel on Thursday.