WASHINGTON: US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her Covid vaccine live on television Tuesday and urged public trust in the process, while her choice of hospital highlighted the plight of the hard-hit African-American community.

A mask-wearing Harris received the first of her two shots at United Medical Center, located in an area of Washington, DC with a large African-American population.

"So I want to remind people that right in your community is where you can take the vaccine, where you will receive the vaccine by folks you may know," she said after receiving the vaccine manufactured by US firm Moderna.

"So I want to remind people that they have trusted sources of help and that's where they will be able to go to get the vaccine."

The United States has registered some 19.3 million cases and more than 335,000 deaths related to the virus, both the world's highest, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.