The United States on Wednesday registered more than 2,400 deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally – the highest daily toll in six months as the Thanksgiving holiday began. The country has recorded more than 262,000 Covid-19 deaths, up by 2,439 in 24 hours. It also registered nearly 200,000 new cases, with the national tally more than 12.7 million. Travel appeared to be down the night before Thanksgiving, when Americans usually criss-cross the country to be with family and friends for a feast on Thursday marking one of their most important national holidays. Worldwide coronavirus cases surge past 60 million The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local authorities have begged people not to travel and urged them to keep their Thanksgiving celebrations small. In recent days, images on social media of crowded airports fuelled concerns Americans were not taking the warnings seriously. But one day before Thursday’s celebrations, officials and passengers in Los Angeles noted an eerie quiet compared to previous years. “After weeks and months of the Covid and all these issues of unemployment, it’s nice to feel a sense of belonging,” said Samitha Antwi, a woman who picked up a packaged meal distributed by the Los Angeles Mission ahead of Thanksgiving. “A hot meal, it warms your heart. We call it, in my community, soul food,” added Linn Hohl, another woman in line. US President-elect Joe Biden cited accelerating plans to deliver a vaccine as he appealed for his “weary” countrymen to dig deep. “There is real hope, tangible hope. So hang on. Don’t let yourself surrender to the fatigue,” Biden said in a televised Thanksgiving address. “You will get your lives back. Life is going to return to normal. That will happen. This will not last forever.” Biden’s first act as president-elect was to urge all Americans to wear masks, and to announce the formation of a new coronavirus advisory board that will consider a national mask mandate as one of his first executive actions. President Donald Trump, who has scarcely mentioned the pandemic in recent days even as it has achieved record heights, remained fixated on his election defeat. Despite coronavirus vaccine hope, US must brace itself for a winter of despair Biden meanwhile has formed a coronavirus advisory board of scientists, doctors and public health experts, and plans to establish a Covid-19 coordinator in the White House to lead his administration’s response. Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, expects a role in the incoming administration and said he would serve in a senior position if called upon by Biden. Fauci said he assumes he will stay in his job as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a position he has held since 1984. But he would “seriously consider” serving in another capacity, such as director of the CDC or as Health and Human Services secretary, if Biden asked. “I’m perfectly comfortable with the role that I’m in, but certainly if the president of the United States wants me to do something else, I’d seriously consider it,” Fauci said. Fauci said he would support executive action on masks if Biden chooses that path. “If President-elect Biden decides on a mask mandate, I will be fully supportive of that. I do know that there is a considerable amount of pushback for mandates,” Fauci said. “I would certainly be supportive of it.” Hundreds of corpses stored in New York freezer trucks for months Fauci also suggested an alternative path: having the president encourage state and local authorities to implement mask mandates based on their individualised outbreaks, with the full backing of the federal government. Epidemiologists warn that an additional 200,000 Americans could die due to the coronavirus in the coming months before a vaccine becomes available – a number that would be drastically reduced with widespread mask use. Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Tribune News Service