Biden, speaking on a conference call with frontline workers, pointed to the role of the General Services Administration (GSA), which normally recognizes a presidential candidate when it becomes clear who has won an election so that a transition of power can begin.
That has not yet happened despite U.S. television and news networks declaring Biden the winner after he secured enough electoral votes to secure the presidency.
The lack of GSA certification could delay his administration’s coronavirus response by “weeks or months” Biden told a group of frontline volunteers, representing healthcare workers and firefighters.
Biden became choked up when Mary Turner, the head of the Minnesota Nurses Association, who is also an ICU nurse, described the toll caring for sick and dying patients was taking on healthcare workers.
U.S. coronavirus cases have skyrocketed in recent weeks and deaths are approaching the quarter-million mark.
Biden also said that he would be encouraging governors and political leaders around the country to institute strict guidelines to control the spread of the virus, and said that his own family would not be holding a large Thanksgiving celebration during the upcoming holiday.
The frontline workers described the increased risks to safety they are facing during the coronavirus surge, including continuing shortages in securing personal protective equipment (PPE).
Biden promised a raft of measures to support them, as part of what he said would be his administration’s “robust and aggressive effort to control the virus.”