WASHINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden says Americans won’t be forced to take a coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available in the US.

It comes as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the first time urged “universal mask use” indoors, unless when Americans are at their own home.

The CDC said the US had “entered a phase of high-level transmission” of the virus.

On Friday the US recorded over 2,500 deaths and nearly 225,000 new cases.

It has confirmed 14.3 million cases and more than 278,000 deaths.

(With inputs from Agencies)