Harris halts poll events as aides test +ve
WASHINGTON: Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris suspended in-person events until Monday after her communications director and a member of her flight crew tested positive for Covid-19.
But presidential candidate Joe Biden will go ahead with a town hall event on Thursday. Harris was to visit North Carolina on Thursday and to travel daily until Election Day on November 3. She was not in “close contact” with communications director Liz Allen or the crew member in the days before they tested positive, but her travel would be paused “out of an abundance of caution”. Neither infected person was in contact with Biden.
Biden and US President Donald Trump will participate in duelling town halls instead of clashing face-to-face in their second debate.
Trump’s son Barron had Covid-19, says Melania
Trump’s teenage son Barron had contracted Covid-19, first lady Melania Trump revealed on Wednesday in news that was startling because it had been kept from the public for so long. Melania said their 14-year-old, who goes to a private school near Washington, did not experience symptoms and has since tested negative for the virus.
“Barron Trump, you know, he had the Corona 19,” the US president said in Des Moines, Iowa. “He had it (for) such a short period of time, I don’t even think he knew he had it.” The news, kept under wraps despite global attention on the president’s own health, thrust public attention firmly back on the Covid-19 pandemic.
New US jobless claims rise sharply to 898,000
Adding to Trump’s woes ahead of polls, the labour department said on Thursday that new applications for US jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week to 898,000. The 53,000 increase from the prior week was the sharpest rise in seasonally adjusted initial claims since the week of mid-August, as the US attempts to recover from mass layoffs caused by business shutdowns to stop Covid-19.
Dems have ‘good chance’ to win, says Republican
Lindsey Graham, a top Republican senator with close ties to President Trump, said on Thursday he believed Biden had a “good chance” of winning the presidency.
“You all have a good chance of winning the White House,” the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee told his Democratic colleagues.