Joe Biden selects Xavier Becerra as health secretary to battle COVID-19

USPresident-elect Joe Biden will nominate California Attorney General XavierBecerrafor secretary of health and human services as soon as Monday, a source familiar with the decision said, as he builds up his team to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The choice ofBecerra, 62, a Latino former congressman, comes as Biden faces more pressure to add diversity to his cabinet appointments, including complaints from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about the number of Latinos.

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Becerrawill lead the health agency as officials struggle to contain a resurgence of the coronavirus, including record infections and a daily death toll that has exceeded 2,000 in recent days, and to prepare for a mammoth effort to vaccinate Americans against the virus.

If confirmed by the Senate, Becerra, 62, will be the first Latino to head the Department of Health and Human Services, a USD 1-trillion-plus agency with 80,000 employees and a portfolio that includes drugs and vaccines, leading-edge medical research and health insurance programs covering more than 130 million Americans.

Biden's selection of Becerra was confirmed Sunday by two people familiar with the decision, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement anticipated Tuesday.

Biden's choice ofBecerragives him an administrator with a long record of supporting the Affordable Care Act - former President Barack Obama's key domestic policy achievement.

A former senior House Democrat, Becerra was involved in steering the Obama health law through Congress in 2009 and 2010.

Becerraplayed a key role in passing the landmark law during his time in Congress, and in his current role in California leads the coalition of 20 states defending the program better known as Obamacare, including in a case before the Supreme Court last month.

"Biden is living up to his commitment to make the cabinet a reflection of the diversity," said Robert Garcia, mayor of Long Beach, California, and a longtime ally ofBecerraand Biden.

Garcia saidBecerra"has a strong record on healthcare but I think it goes beyond that. The president-elect selected someone with the highest levels of integrity and intellect."

Biden is also expected to nominate Rochelle Walensky, chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, to run the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a different person familiar with hiring for the President-elect's health team said.

Biden already has asked Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of Trump's coronavirus task force, to stay on as a chief medical adviser.

The former vice president also has named Jeff Zients, an economic adviser touted for his managerial skills, as a coronavirus "czar" to oversee an unprecedented operation to distribute hundreds of millions of doses of a new vaccine, coordinating efforts across multiple federal agencies.

Biden picked Vivek Murthy, a physician, and former surgeon general who has gained prominence in recent months as co-chairman of Biden's advisory board dealing with the pandemic, to return for a second term as surgeon general.

Becerraserved as a Democratic USrepresentative from 1993 to 2017 before moving back to his home state to become attorney general. In that post, he succeeded Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.