Trump, Biden trade barbs on virus response

Quick action

Doctor Anthony Fauci, who heads the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged US states to take quick action to stamp out even slight upticks in COVID-19 cases.

Fauci, who has, at times, found himself at odds with Trump's response to the pandemic, also said he is "cautiously optimistic" a COVID-19 vaccine could be developed soon, but acknowledged the chances it would be highly effective are "not great".

Doctor Robert Redfield, head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had acknowledged during an ABC News interview that the initial federal government response to the virus was too slow.

The US on Wednesday reported nearly 56,000 new coronavirus cases, the highest one-day tally in four days, and 1,499 deaths, its highest daily count since May 27, when there were 1,518, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. On Thursday, the number of new cases decreased by 90 to 55,910.

Total cases in the US topped 5.2 million, about a quarter of the worldwide total, according to the data.

On Thursday, Trump again dismissed critics who say he was too slow to react to the pandemic in the US, saying on Fox Business Network that "nobody blames me".

As for the virus, Trump said: "It will be going away."

Agencies and Ai Heping in New York contributed to this story.