Texas and Florida closed close to 10,000 coronavirus deaths Friday, while false claims by President Donald Trump about the progress of the pandemic were armed by Joe Biden.
The national death toll from the virus that devastated the way Americans live and the economy was 168,334 and climbed Friday, and the total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus was close to the 5.3 million mark, figures from NBC News showed.
The US accounted for a quarter of the world more than 760,000 deaths with COVID-19 and nearly 21 million confirmed cases.
Florida endures 9,000 deaths two days after Gov. Ron DeSantis raised eyebrows by repeating an awkward metaphor comparing the state’s efforts to rebuild schools in the midst of a pandemic following the 2011 operation of Navy SEALs green-lighted by President Barack Obama calling Osama Bin Laden killed.
“Superintendent Martinie Laurie Gaylord of Martin County told me today that she reopened her schools as a mission similar to a Navy SEAL operation,” DeSantis said of his interview, before continuing the comparison.
Just as the SEALs overcame obstacles to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, Martin County’s school system would also find a way to give parents a meaningful choice of instruction for individuals or continuous learning at a distance – all in, all the time . “
Texas, which is also in the process of reopening its schools over the complaints of many school officials, health professionals and parents, had reported 9,836 coronavirus deaths Friday morning, NBC News figures showed.
The U.S. has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the last two weeks, most of them in the Southern and Sun Belt states that began reopening in May and June at the threat of Trump, despite warnings from public health experts that it is crossing the coronavirus.
Georgia, one of the last states to shut down and reopen the first, reported 136 deaths Tuesday, the highest number since the pandemic began.
California, the largest state in the nation and the first to have more than 600,000 cases of coronavirus, is close to 11,000 dead, NBC News figures show. It was the first to enact shelter rules. But Govin Gavin Newsom began, under pressure from companies and other groups, to lift restrictions in May and June, after which the number of new cases and deaths began to explode.
Six weeks after Newsom shut down large parts of the economy, however, there are signs that the state is getting a grip on the coronavirus and that the transmission period is going down, The Los Angeles Times reported.
“While our gains may feel slow and our future remains fragile, our success over the past three weeks has been real,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday. “We are beginning to see signs of light.”
In other developments:
- Now he Sen. Kamala Harris of California has been chosen as his running mate, Joe Biden takes aim at the litany of misrepresentations Trump made during the pandemic. Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield released a memo with 150 examples of the president “posing the threat posed by COVID-19.” “Simply put, Trump has regularly lied to the American people about matters of life and death,” she wrote. Trump has touted, among other things, “unproven and potentially dangerous treatments,” is guilty of “removing racist rhetoric and disregarding public health officials’ advice,” suggesting the virus would simply disappear one day. There was no immediate response from the Trump campaign to the Bedingfield breadth. But the Trump remarks she quotes are well documented and have been reported by several news outlets.
- A California megachurch is suing the state and Los Angeles County to stop officials from banning large indoor gatherings during the pandemic. Grace Community Church states that “the health commands are in violation of California’s Constitution,” said the Thomas More Society, whose lawyers represent the church. Los Angeles County has submitted a countersuit. Currently, places of worship in California are limited to 25 percent of capacity building than 100 participants indoors, which is lower. Singing and chanting, which medical experts say is a noble way to spread the virus, are also banned. Grace Community is not the first megachurch to land in a church-versus-state battle over coronavirus restrictions.
- Charles Vallejo Jr. is a medical student who followed in the footsteps of his doctor-father and doctor-grandfather. He buried them both. The coronavirus killed retired physician Jorge Vallejo, 89, and Dr. Carlos Vallejo, 57, who were practicing medicine in Miami Lakes, Florida. Charles Vallejo said he suspected his father had contracted the virus while treating his patients who were in rehab centers and nursing homes and that he had accidentally passed it on to his father at a birthday party. “The week before he got COVID, I was walking with my dog and saw my grandfather cut down a tree,” the surviving Vallejo told NBC News.
- South Dakota Gov. Christ Name urges her concerned constituents with coronavirus to tackle her “positive pants.” Noem said she got the idea for optimism to fight the pandemic of a bulletin board in a Sioux Falls fourth grade class. “It said ‘Put on your positive pants.’ “That message reminded me of a lesson that is often easy to forget: an optimistic outlook can be enormously helpful in meeting the challenges of life,” the Republican governor said. “South Dakota does not require masks and van.” Finally, more than 8.6 percent of the state’s coronavirus testing administrations have returned positive, according to a rolling seven-day count by Johns Hopkins University on Friday. The World Health Organization’s benchmark for business reopening is 5 percent.
- The twin shafts of light that symbolize the fallen Twin Towers and appear every year to commemorate the victims of 9/11 have become extinct due to the pandemic. The 9/11 Memorial said it was too risky for the crew producing the ‘Tribute in Light’, which sends the beams up into the night sky from dusk on September 11 until tomorrow on September 12 in lower Manhattan . “This incredibly difficult decision was reached in consultation with our partners after the closure of the health risks during the pandemic were far too large for the large crew needed to produce the annual Tribute in Light,” it said 9/11 Memorial in a statement.
Nigel Chiwaya contributed.
