Trump pivots with return to virus briefings

Faced with a surge in COVID-19 cases in more than 30 states and floundering poll numbers ahead of the November election, US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he is reviving daily coronavirus briefings at the White House.

"I was doing them, and we had a lot of people watching, record numbers watching in the history of cable television," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "There's never been anything like it. It's a great way to get information out to the public as to where we are with the vaccines, with the therapeutics."

As more states and businesses have mandated the wearing of face masks, Trump on Monday also gave what appeared to be his strongest endorsement yet for masks, calling it "patriotic" to wear them and tweeting an image of himself doing so.

For months, White House aides had tried to get Trump to wear a mask, but he refused to comply and wore one only once in public: during a July 11 visit to a military hospital. Trump said in a Fox News interview aired on weekend that he opposes a national mask mandate.

CNN reported that a source "familiar with the president's thinking" said Trump has shifted to encouraging mask wearing primarily because of polls showing the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden leading him by wide margins in some key states.

Trump told reporters he would probably hold the first of the new series of briefings on Tuesday at 5 pm.

"We have had this big flare-up in Florida, Texas, a couple of other places," Trump said. "I'll get involved and we'll start doing briefings."

As of Monday morning, 31 states saw more new cases last week, compared with the numbers from the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Trump's advisers had debated a return to the daily briefings that were held in March and April because he often used them to spar with reporters and criticize governors, members of Congress, and others while frequently making inaccurate statements about the virus.

On April 25, Trump tweeted: "What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, &then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time& effort!"

Public spotlight

But with the Trump campaign finding it difficult to hold large campaign rallies because of the outbreak, the briefing gives him a chance to return to the public spotlight.

Florida reported 10,347 new cases on Monday, marking the sixth consecutive day the state has reported more than 10,000 new cases.

The American Federation of Teachers, the nation's largest teachers union, and its local affiliate, the Florida Education Association, sued Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday to block his emergency order of earlier this month mandating that schools across the state reopen five days a week from August.

They accused the Republican governor of violating a state law requiring that schools be "safe" and "secure". Florida is home to five of the country's 10 largest school districts.

In California, the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Los Angeles County reached a new high on Sunday, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said that the city was "on the brink" of imposing new restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus, but he did not elaborate.

Health officials in Los Angeles County also said that the latest COVID-19 numbers indicate that the disease has become most prevalent in the relatively young: 53 percent of the new cases occurred in people under 41.