The former Democratic vice president has dismissed the Republican incumbent's unlikely challenge to his win and announced Ron Klain as his White House chief of staff, marking his first significant appointment. The surge in daily coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the United States following the November 3 election has shifted the focus of the presidential transition to pandemic response. Trump will remain in office until Biden's inauguration on January 20, with foreign allies congratulating Biden and The Elders group urging Trump to accept defeat to avoid jeopardizing American democracy. Attention has now turned to Biden's potential choices for Cabinet positions, although there have been few hints about when these announcements will be made. Antony Blinken, a diplomat and longtime confidant, is being considered for secretary of state or national security adviser. The treasury secretary will need to address economic challenges such as recession and joblessness, while also addressing wealth inequality, climate change, and other issues. Klain, who previously served as Barack Obama's "Ebola czar" during the 2014 outbreak, is expected to play a key role in the Biden administration's response to the current surge in COVID-19 cases. Biden has chosen Klain for his experience and trustworthiness, as he previously worked as Al Gore's top aide during the Clinton administration. Gore told Reuters that he always had a wealth of knowledge and his advice was always well-informed, with a strong grasp of the policy process, argument merits, 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, with the death toll rising by 1,464. Biden has secured enough battleground states to surpass the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency in the Electoral College, and is also leading in the popular vote by over 5.2 million votes. Since major news outlets declared Biden the winner of the election on Saturday, Trump has chosen to keep a low public profile and vent his frustrations on Twitter instead. He has not acknowledged the rising number of coronavirus cases across the country. Trump has been focusing on trying to overturn the election results in states where the outcome was close, despite lacking any evidence of wrongdoing that could impact the results. Judges have been skeptical of his claims. His team has been actively fundraising for legal challenges, but donations under $8,000 will not go towards these efforts. Instead, smaller donations will go to the Republican National Committee or a new political action committee for other uses such as travel expenses or future political campaigns. Democrats have accused Trump of trying to undermine public trust in the US election system and discredit Biden's victory. 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. While some news outlets have added Arizona's 11 electoral votes to Biden's total, Edison Research has not yet confirmed this traditionally Republican state for the Democrat, who is currently leading by 0.3 percentage points. In Georgia, another historically Republican state with 16 electoral votes, Biden also has a 0.3 percentage point lead. In order for Trump to stay in office, he would have to win Arizona and Georgia, as well as overturn one or more states already in Biden's favor before the Electoral College vote on December 14th. This is considered a highly unlikely scenario. Trump tweeted on Thursday that if they can audit all the votes cast, they would easily win Arizona. However, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs stated that the vote margin was not close enough to warrant a recount. There are still around 25,000 ballots left to count, and Trump would need to win 65 percent of these remaining votes in order to surpass Biden's lead. Hobbs told CNN on Thursday that the possibility of a recount happening is there, but he believes it is unlikely. Georgia has chosen to conduct a manual recount of its votes. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's Republican secretary of state, stated that it is improbable that many errors will be found in the previous machine count. Raffensperger assured Fox News Channel on Thursday that regardless of the outcome, the recount will be accurate and provide the exact vote totals.