Biden faces tough choice on virus lockdowns

President-elect Joe Biden faces some tough decisions on how to handle the coronavirus pandemic (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Joe Biden faces a decision unlike any other incoming president: whether to back a short-term national lockdown to finally arrest a raging pandemic.

For now, it is a question the president-elect would prefer to avoid. In the week since he defeated Donald Trump, Mr Biden has devoted most of his public remarks to encouraging Americans to wear a mask and view the coronavirus as a threat that has no regard for political ideology.