"The situation requires urgent action," Biden said in a statement on Friday. "Americans need help and they need it now."

A government report earlier in the day showed the labour market slowing in November amid a surge of COVID-19 cases.

Biden, the Democratic former vice president, offered support for an emerging bipartisan package of around $US908 billion ($A1.2 trillion) that has drawn tentative support from members of both parties in Congress.

But he said the bill would be "just the start" and vowed to press for additional relief once he takes office in January.

The president-elect has focused heavily on the pandemic and economy during the transition, after a campaign in which he made President Donald Trump's mishandling of the coronavirus a central theme.

He is expected to name Jeff Zients, a co-chair of his transition and a former Obama administration economic aide, as his coronavirus "czar" to co-ordinate the government's pandemic response.

Zients would also oversee an ambitious vaccine distribution effort, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Earlier this week, Biden unveiled his economic team, led by his nominee for Treasury secretary, former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen.

Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence was visiting Georgia on Friday, where he was receiving a briefing on the pandemic at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pence will then attend a rally with Republican US senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who face January runoff elections that will determine control of the Senate.

Trump, a Republican who has still refused to concede to Biden, is scheduled to headline a rally with Perdue and Loeffler on Saturday.

Australian Associated Press