July 4 amid Covid worries as Trump defends response
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that 99% of coronavirus cases in the US were “totally harmless,” as the 4th of July weekend to mark Independence Day added to worries of further spread of the pandemic.
Many states marked a record number of new Covid-19 cases. In Texas alone, 7,890 patients were hospitalised after 238 new admissions over the past 24 hours. Florida has reported a new record of 11,445 cases.
Officials and health authorities warned people to take precautions or simply stay home on Independence Day.
The US set another daily record Friday with more than 54,000 newly reported infections, according to numbers kept by Johns Hopkins University. The daily toll reported on Saturday also passed 50,000.
Upping the ante on Beijing over its handling of the pandemic, Trump said China must be held fully accountable for its
“secrecy, deception and cover-up” that allowed it to spread the coronavirus all over the world. He touted the country’s “progress” against the pandemic saying, “We have the manufacturing record for ventilators. We have the most and the finest testing anywhere in the world.”
We are producing gowns, masks, and surgical equipment in our country…it was almost exclusively made in foreign lands, in particular, China, where ironically this virus and others came from. China’s secrecy, deception, and cover-up allowed it to spread all over the world, 189 countries and China must be held fully accountable.”
The US has more than 2.8 million confirmed cases — about a quarter of worldwide infections, which is widely thought to understate the true toll, partially because of asymptomatic cases and limited testing.
“I’m really, really worried about the Fourth of July,” said Dr. Don Williamson, a former state health officer who now heads the Alabama Hospital Association.
KATHMANDU: Facing growing demand for his resignation, Nepal’s embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli has said that the ruling communist party is facing a grave crisis, indicating that it may split soon, according to a media report on Sunday.
Oli, at an emergency meeting of the cabinet at his official residence, told the cabinet ministers that “some of our party members are also trying to remove President Bidya Devi Bhandari from the power,” My Republica newspaper quoted a senior leader as saying.
“Now, conspiracies are being hatched to remove me from the post of prime minister and party chairman,” the prime minister said on Saturday, adding that he will not let it happen.
The ruling party is facing a grave crisis, Oli said.
After Oli’s remarks about the conspiracy to impeach the president, three former prime ministers - Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, Madhav Nepal and Jhanalanth Khanal - met Bhandari and clarified that the rumour about the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders trying to remove her from office were untrue, The Kathmandu Post reported.
On Saturday, a crucial meeting of the NCP’S 45-member powerful Standing Committee to decide the political future of Oli was postponed until Monday to allow more time for the top leadership to iron out their differences over his style of functioning and anti-india statements.
During the cabinet meeting, a defiant Oli said that he will not be forced to accept the party’s standing committee decision.