‘We’re rounding the turn,’ Trump claims

WILMINGTON: United States President Donald Trump claimed progress yesterday after the US set records for daily infections, as Democratic challenger Joe Biden accused him of surrendering to the pandemic.

‘‘We are coming around, we’re rounding the turn, we have the vaccines, we have everything,’’ Trump told a rally in New Hampshire.

The United States reported 79,852 new infections on Sunday, close to the previous day's record of 84,244. No vaccines have been approved for use there.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN that ‘‘we’re not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas.’’

Biden seized on those comments, saying Meadows ‘‘stunningly admitted this morning that the Administration has . . . given up on their basic duty to protect the American people’’.

‘‘This . . . was a candid acknowledgement of what President Trump’s strategy has clearly been from the beginning of this crisis: to wave the white flag of defeat and hope that by ignoring it, the virus would simply go away. It hasn’t, and it won’t.’’ — Reuters