Florida cases surge, Trump says outbreak under control
Florida reported over 12,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the fifth day in a row the state has announced over 10,000 new infections, even as President Donald Trump pledged that the virus was coming under control.
A Reuters tally puts the U.S. death toll at over 140,000 since the pandemic started, and Florida, California, Texas and other states continue to shatter alarming records every day.
Despite record levels of new cases nationwide, the Trump administration is pushing for schools to reopen in just a few weeks.
Trump defended his handling of the pandemic in an interview broadcast on Sunday, including his assessment that there were only embers of the virus smoldering around the country.
He told Fox News Sunday quote, "We have embers and we do have flames. Florida became more flame-like, but it's - it's going to be under control."
And he repeated his assertion that the virus will eventually dissipate, saying "I'll be right eventually. It's going to disappear and I'll be right."
Throughout the United States, every metric to measure the outbreak is going in the wrong direction - rising cases, deaths, hospitalizations and positivity rates of test results.
At least 14 states have reported record coronavirus hospitalizations so far in July.
