President Trump insisted that the coronavirus will “go away” while political events in the fall get canceled out of fear of further coronavirus transmission.
“Absolutely no question in my mind it will go away,” Trump said at the White House Wednesday. “Frankly, sooner rather than later.”
Trump said earlier Wednesday on Fox & Friends that COVID-19 was spreading in a “relatively small portion” of the country. He added that the virus will “go away like things go away.”
Over 4.8 million cases have been confirmed, and more than 157,000 people have died. As of Wednesday, the five-day moving average of new daily cases in the United States is over 50,000, according to tracking maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
Fear of spreading the virus further led organizers of the Democratic National Convention to announce that speakers who were planning to attend the event, set to begin Aug. 17 in Milwaukee, will no longer do so. Former Vice President Joe Biden will accept the Democratic presidential nomination from his home state of Delaware.
“While we wish we could move forward with welcoming the world to beautiful Milwaukee in two weeks, we recognize protecting the health of our host community and everyone involved with this convention must be paramount,” said Joe Solmonese, CEO of the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
The Trump campaign, which has backed off plans to hold several rallies and in-person events, is pushing to set up an in-person debate with Biden in September. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, urged the Commission on Presidential Debates in a letter Wednesday to schedule the fourth debate before early ballots are cast so as not to “also deprive so many Americans of the opportunity to see and hear the two competing visions for our country’s future.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that he will implement checkpoints throughout the five boroughs in an effort to enforce Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s travel advisory, which requires visitors from 34 COVID-19 hot-spot states to self-quarantine for two weeks.
“The checkpoints are going to send a very powerful message that this quarantine is serious. Even if we can’t reach every single person, I think it’ll get the message across,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio, who has clashed with Cuomo several times during the state reopening process, said that Cuomo was “absolutely right” to implement the travel advisory.
On Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson announced that schools will not be open for in-person learning at the start of the school year, using remote learning instead. Teachers will have the option to teach their online students from their classrooms. This comes after Lightfoot spent the last few weeks defending a proposal to reopen public schools in the fall.
Hawaii has seen its first surge in coronavirus cases, with higher rates of new daily cases than those reported in April when the pandemic hit its initial peak. Statewide, 2,591 cases have been reported, with most cases occurring on the island of Oahu, where the capital city Honolulu is located.
State officials recorded a record 207 new cases Monday but said that 114 of the cases are the result of delayed reporting over the weekend, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Gov. David Ige said Monday he might delay plans to waive the mandatory 14-day quarantine for transpacific visitors, set to be lifted Sept. 1.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said that the state of coronavirus testing is “unacceptable” in conversation with Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN in a forum presented by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Fauci said that the wait time to get COVID-19 test results, which ranges from five to 15 days, is hurting public health officials’ efforts to track and trace new coronavirus cases.
“It’s unacceptable. Period,” Fauci told Gupta Wednesday. “And for me to say anything different is distorting reality.”
Fauci said the ultimate goal is to have a diagnostic test able to produce results in 10 minutes, “and can be upscaled … where you could have schools and working places where you could tell somebody who’s infected or not.”
Senate Republican leaders said they’ll remain in session at least next week, abandoning plans to begin a summer recess in order to keep negotiating with Democrats on a stalled coronavirus aid package.
“We have been told we would likely be back next week, unless we somehow finish this week,” Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican, said after meeting with Republican leaders.
A deal this week has become increasingly unlikely as bipartisan talks drag on without much movement. The two parties are trying to close a gap of more than $2 trillion between a GOP coronavirus aid package and a much more expensive Democratic proposal.
The University of Connecticut Huskies became the first Football Bowl Subdivision team to cancel its 2020 season. UConn cited risks associated with COVID-19 as the reason for the cancellation. The players will remain on scholarship.
