US virus briefing turns political

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday turned what was expected to be a briefing on the novel coronavirus pandemic into a lengthy attack on China and former vice-president Joe Biden, who is leading him in most national polls in the race for president.

Trump said Monday that he planned to make pandemic briefings a regular fixture in the White House briefing room again after his months-long hiatus from participating in daily updates.

But on Wednesday, in the second day since the briefings resumed, for the better part of an hour in front of reporters in the White House Rose Garden, Trump gave what was largely a live political advertisement for his re-election campaign.

Trump urged young people again to avoid packed bars and said he was conducting the briefing without doctors from his White House Coronavirus Task Force because he had been briefed by them himself.

Trump again encouraged people to wear masks. He said it was up to the governors to decide how strongly to encourage or require face coverings in their states. Trump has worn a mask once in public, but this week started encouraging face coverings on a wider scale.

He also pressed Americans to practice good hygiene.

"I'm finding more and more people are saying, 'Wash your hands.' So, wash your hands," he said.

Trump opened the briefing by announcing that he will end preferential treatment for Hong Kong in trade and travel in response to a new security law pushed by Beijing.

He then attacked China on several fronts, and sharply criticized Biden for what he said were pro-China comments.

A polling aggregation Wednesday shows the president's disapproval rating at 55.7 percent and that he is trailing Biden nationally in election polls by 8.4 points, according to RealClearPolitics.

Biden said Wednesday that racists have run for president in the past, but that Trump was the first to win the nation's highest office.

In a question-and-answer session with the Service Employees International Union, Biden accused Trump of being a racist and spreading racism by blaming the Chinese for the coronavirus outbreak.

"What President Trump has done in his spreading of racist — the way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they're from — is absolutely sickening," Biden said in a virtual discussion with union members.

"No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never," Biden said. "No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We've had racists, and they've existed, they've tried to get elected president. He's the first one that has."

On Wednesday afternoon, Trump touted his administration's response to the pandemic, telling reporters, "It's all going to work out, and it is working out."

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a nearly $2 billion contract with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and a smaller German biotechnology company for up to 600 million doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine. If the vaccine proves to be safe and effective in clinical trials, the companies say, they could manufacture the first 100 million doses by December.

More than 142,000 people in the US have died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, a toll that public health experts say will likely rise in several states. Florida, Texas, Georgia and California are among about 40 states recording more cases.

Florida reported 9,785 new cases and 140 new deaths Wednesday, while patients hospitalized with COVID-19 hit a record high of 9,530. Alabama reported a record 61 new deaths Wednesday, a day after hospitalizations there hit a record high.

Nationally, coronavirus deaths rose by 1,141 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally. It was the first time since June 10 that the daily toll surpassed 1,000.

Nineteen states have reported a record number of currently hospitalized COVID-19 patients so far in July. Thirty-two states have reported record increases in cases in July.

Reuters contributed to this story.