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Florida coronavirus cases surge for fifth day as Trump pledges outbreak will be under control

[July 20, 2020] By Doina Chiacu and Lisa Shumaker

(Reuters) - 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 "it's going to be under control."

The virus has claimed over 140,000 U.S. lives since the pandemic started, and Florida, California, and other Southern and Western states shatter records every day.

Texas reported 7,300 new cases on Sunday after five straight days of new infections exceeding 10,000.

Despite record levels of new cases nationwide, the Trump administration is pushing for schools to reopen in a few weeks and resisting a federal mandate to wear masks in public.

Trump, who faces a tough battle for re-election in November, defended his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in an interview broadcast on Sunday. The United States, with 3.7 million total cases, has almost as many infections as the next three hardest-hit countries combined - Brazil, India and Russia.

"We have embers and we do have flames. Florida became more flame-like, but it's - it's going to be under control."

Trump on "Fox News Sunday" repeated his assertion that the virus would eventually disappear.

"I'll be right eventually," he said. "It's going to disappear and I'll be right."

Experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned that cases and deaths could rise this autumn and winter. Nearly all 20 forecasting models used by the CDC project rising deaths in the coming weeks.

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, including Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Nevada and Texas.

Trump said he did not agree with CDC Director Robert Redfield that this fall and winter would be one of the most difficult times in American public health, as hospitals deal with the seasonal flu on top of COVID cases. "I don't know and I don't think he knows," Trump said.

Trump also called Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious diseases expert, "a little bit of an alarmist."

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A barrier blocks a street prior to the 8 pm curfew, imposed due to Florida's climbing numbers of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, in Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. July 18, 2020. REUTERS/Liza Feria

TESTING SHORTAGES, DELAYS

Fauci has warned that cases could soon top 100,000 a day if Americans do not come together to take steps necessary to halt the spread of the virus. The country is averaging 60,000 new cases a day and reported a record one-day increase of 77,299 on Thursday.

Testing shortages and delayed results in some states are hampering efforts to curb the outbreak, similar to situations that frustrated state officials and health experts at the start of the pandemic in March and April.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said on NBC’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday that people were waiting up to a week to learn if they tested positive.

"That really undercuts the value of the testing," Collins said.

Suburban Philadelphia resident Tamara Hala, 35, said she decided to get tested after attending a gathering where someone outside her group said COVID-19 was a "hoax." But she has not yet received results from the July 8 test at a CVS store.

"I just can't stop thinking about how many people potentially have it and don't know," she said.

Instead of expanding testing, the Trump administration wants to block $25 billion for states to conduct testing and contact tracing, according to reports in the Washington Post and New York Times.

The White House declined on Sunday to comment to Reuters on those reports.

The number of COVID tests performed each day has doubled since late May but remains lower than recommended by some health experts. The United States set a record on Friday with over 850,000 tests performed, according to data from the COVID-Tracking Project .

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut and Nandita Bose and Heather Timmons in Washington; Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Peter Cooney)

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