Biden and team spend a working Sunday, begin transition as Trump refuses to concede

US President-electJoe Bidentook the first steps Sunday towards moving into the White House in 73 days, as Donald Trump again refused to admit defeat and tried to sow doubt about the election results.

Biden and his advisors spent their Sunday planning how to address the nation's coronavirus crisis. Among their plans was also the bridging of America's gaping political divisions.

The Biden campaign also urged the Trump political appointee who heads the USGeneral Services Administration to approve an official transition of power despite President Donald Trump's refusal to concede. It warned that USnational security and economic interests depended on a clear signal the country would engage in a "smooth and peaceful transfer of power."

Biden was declared the winner of the November3 election by UStelevision networks on Saturday, but Trump and his allies have made clear he does not plan to concede anytime soon.

Biden's website,BuildBackBetter.com, after posting a minimal version earlier in the week, now includes four "administration priorities" for the incoming presidency: Covid-19, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change.

"The team being assembled will meet these challenges on Day One," the website said in a reference to January 20, 2021, when Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

A transition official told CNN thatwork to prepare for a Biden administration "continues full speed."

The transition has also launched a series of social media channels on Sunday -- @transition46 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The website lays out a seven-point plan to tacklethe coronavirus, including "regular, reliable, and free testing" to all Americans, an " effective, equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines" once available and working with governors and mayors to implement a nationwide mask mandate.

Biden, who turns 78 on November 20, is the oldest person ever elected to the White House. Harris a senator from California, is the first woman, first Black person and first South Asian person to be elected vice president.

Furthermore,Biden plans to make the coronavirus his top priority during the transition, attempting to make good on a campaign issue that dominated the general election. Heplans to name a task force on Monday to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 237,000 people dead in the United States and is surging across the country.

Reportedly, Biden's healthcare advisors held talks with drugmaker executives on the US government's Operation Warp Speed programme to accelerate development of a possible COVID-19 treatment, a Biden spokesman said on Sunday.

Under the Trump administration, Operation Warp Speed has struck deals with several drugmakers in an effort to help speed up the search for effective treatments for the disease amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

Biden's advisors met with companies that have COVID-19 vaccines or therapies in late-stage clinical trials in September and October, Bloomberg News had reported earlier.

The report added that the meeting was aimed at gathering information about the development, manufacturing and distribution of shots to ward off the novel coronavirus and therapies to treat the sick.

He has also announced plans to rejoin the Paris climate accord and will reportedly issue an executive order on his first day in office reversing Trump's travel ban on mostly Muslim countries.

Biden has vowed to name a cabinet that reflects the diversity of the country, although he may have trouble gaining approval for more progressive appointees if Republicans retain control of the Senate -- an outcome that will depend on two runoff races in Georgia in January.

In a speech in his home state of Delaware on Saturday, Biden delivered a message of unity and conciliation, declaring that it is "time to heal" the nation and reaching out to Americans who voted for Trump and to congressional Republicans.

"The work starts right away," Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield said on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

Biden has promised to improve access to coronavirus testing and, unlike Trump, to heed the advice of leading public health officials and scientists. Some 10 million Americans thrown out of work during coronavirus lockdowns remain idled, and federal relief programs have expired.

Biden and his advisors also will move forward with the work of choosing officials to serve in his administration.

The president-elect will "address a mandate to bring the country together - to unify, to lower the temperature, to set aside the harsh rhetoric of the campaign and get to the hard work of governing."

Also, two former senior US intelligence officials - Michael Morell and Avril Haines - have emerged as leading contenders to serve as director of national intelligence or run the CIA under Biden.

Biden pledged that as president he would seek to unify the United States and "marshal the forces of decency" to battle the pandemic, restore economic prosperity, secure healthcare for American families and root out systemic racism.

"For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment tonight. I've lost a couple times myself. But now, let's give each other a chance. It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again," Biden said.

"This is the time to heal in America," Biden added.

Biden called for cooperation between America's two major political parties as he faces political dysfunction and partisan gridlock in Washington.

Biden, who has spent half a century in public life as a US senator and vice president, was introduced by his running mate, US Senator Kamala Harris, who will be the first woman, the first Black American and the first American of Asian descent to serve as vice president, the country's No. 2 office.

Biden when he enters the White House will be the oldest person to assume the office, at age 78.

Congratulations poured in for Biden from abroad, including from conservative British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making it hard for Trump to push his repeated claims, without evidence, that the election was rigged against him.

Meanwhile, Trump played golf at his course near Washington, the same place where he was Saturday when the US television networks delivered the news that Biden had secured enough Electoral College votes for victory.

"Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be?" Trump complained in a tweet on Sunday.

Trump plans to file a string of lawsuits in the coming week, according to his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who said he had "a lot of evidence" of fraud.

But former president George W. Bush said the "outcome is clear" and added that he had called "President-elect" Biden and Harris to extend his congratulations.

Bush said in a statement that "the American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair... We must come together for the sake of our families and neighbors, and for our nation and its future."

(with inputs from agencies)