President-elect Joe Biden has named California’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary and Dr. Rochelle Walensky to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), both of whom will be important figures in the new administration’s fight to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

A former House of Representatives member, Becerra defended the Affordable Care Act at the Supreme Court last month and, if confirmed by the Senate, would become the first Latino head of HHS.

Dr. Walensky is a virology expert who has been leading COVID-19 response efforts in Massachusetts, holding the chief of infectious diseases position at Massachusetts General Hospital as well as being a professor of medicine at Harvard University.

It was previously announced that infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci would stay on as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a role he has held since 1984. In addition, Biden has asked him to be chief medical adviser to the new administration and to be part of the COVID-19 response team — and Fauci has accepted.