White House: 'The science should not stand in the way' of reopening schools – as it happened

Live reporting on the coronavirus in the US continues with Friday’s blog:

From me and Joan E Greve:

• The White House press secretary suggested “the science should not stand in the way” of reopening schools. As coronavirus cases surge across the country, many major school districts, including Los Angeles and Dallas, have announced plans to hold online-only classes. In Texas, governor Greg Abbott permitted districts to continue online teaching, overriding an earlier policy that could have cost funding to districts that resisted reopening.
• Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, is filing a lawsuit against Atlanta’s Democratic mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over her coronavirus response. The lawsuit seeks to block Bottoms from enforcing a citywide mask mandate requiring people to wear face masks in public and challenges the mayor’s decision to return to “phase one” of the city’s reopening plan as cases surged.
• Canada and the US have once again extended restrictions on cross-border travel. The restrictions, which were first enacted in March, allow only “essential” travel by land and sea across the world’s largest undefended border.
• A new CDC report said Trump’s European travel ban was enacted too late to protect New York residents. “Although travel restrictions are an important mitigation strategy, by the time the European restrictions were implemented, importation and community transmission of Sars-CoV-2 had already occurred in NYC,” the report says. Although the rate of new infections has slowed significantly in New York, the city has lost more than 23,000 residents to the virus.
• The supreme court declined to block a Florida law criticized as a “poll tax”. Florida can continue to block people with felony convictions from voting until they’ve repaid all fines and fees they owe, the US supreme court said today. Florida Republicans passed the law after the state’s voters approved a 2018 initiative to restore voting rights to those previously convicted of felonies.
• The Republican National Committee is reportedly planning for a downsized nominating convention next month, as coronavirus cases rise in 41 states. According to reports, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a letter to delegates that attendance would be strictly limited at next month’s convention in Jacksonville, Florida.
• Russian state-sponsored hackers have been targeting organizations working to develop a coronavirus vaccine, British security officials said. The hacking efforts have been specifically targeting groups involved in vaccine work in the UK, the US and Canada.

The Democrats are urging elected leaders and party delegates to skip the national convention in August as coronavirus cases surge, the New York Times reports.

From the Times:

“We have been working closely with state and local public health officials, as well epidemiologists, and have come to the hard decision that members of Congress should not plan to travel to Milwaukee,” Chasseny Lewis, a senior adviser to the convention committee, wrote in an email to congressional aides. “No delegates will travel to Milwaukee and Caucus and Council meetings will take place virtually.”

The directive ensures that little will happen at the physical convention site beyond keynote speeches from former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., his vice-presidential nominee and a handful of other top party leaders. The remainder of the event — state delegation meetings, parties and schmoozing, voting on the party platform and Mr. Biden’s nomination — will happen virtually or not at all.

Over the past several months, Democrats have scaled back their plans, moving the convention across downtown Milwaukee from the Fiserv Forum, the city’s professional basketball arena, to the Wisconsin Center, a modest convention center that typically hosts events like the city’s car show. The last national political event to take place there was the 2004 Green Party convention. Party officials have been consulting regularly with doctors and epidemiologists and say they are following the recommendations of the medical establishment.

Puerto Rico has rolled back its reopening, ordering bars, gyms, theaters and other businesses to close, and limiting the use of beaches to those who are exercising.

“We’ve reached a level where we need to take more restrictive measures,” said governor Wanda Vázquez. The restrictions will be in place for two weeks, until at least 31 July, she said.

The sale of alcohol will also be limited after 7pm, and restaurants will be required to keep at 50% capacity. Vázquez also announced $100m in funding for municipalities worst hit by the pandemic and $150m in aid for hospitals. She is also seeking to limit flights into the territory from Texas and Florida, both coronavirus hotspots.

The major tourist destination also requires visitors to present a negative Covid-19 test result, taken no more than 72 hours before their arrival. Those who don’t comply will face a mandatory quarantine.

Vázquez was among the first leaders in the US to enact shelter-in-place orders when the pandemic first struck. The island of 3.2m has counted more than 10,500 cases and 172 deaths.

Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp has filed a lawsuit blocking Atlanta Democratic mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s coronavirus response.

The lawsuit seeks to block her from enforcing a citywide mandate requiring people to wear face masks in public and challenges Bottom’s decision to return to “phase one” of the city’s reopening plan as cases surged, arguing that Kemp can “suspend municipal orders that are contradictory” to state policy.

Kemp had issued a statewide order restricting local governments from enacting more drastic coronavirus restrictions than the state. Georgia has reported more than 127,000 Covid-19 cases, and about half are in Atlanta. Bottoms herself has tested positive.

Kemp has often butted heads with Bottoms, who is on Joe Biden’s shortlist of potential running mates. She has criticized Kemp’s decision to send national guard troops to her city to protect state buildings amid protests against police brutality, and last week announced her intention to have Atalanta reverse its reopening plan despite protests from Kemp.

Restrictions limiting non-essential travel between Canada and the US have been extended. The restrictions will be in place until 21 August, “to keep people in both our countries safe”, said prime minister Justin Trudeau.

The US and Canada first began restricting travel across their border in March. The restrictions have since been renewed three times. US lawmakers have been pressuring officials in both countries to ease up the travel limits, but Canadians are wary of letting in travelers from the US as coronavirus cases here surge.

A loophole does allow Canadians to fly into the US - though they have to quarantine for two weeks upon returning to Canada.

Dallas, Texas, officials won’t reopen schools until at least 8 September.

The Dallas Independent school district is the latest major school district to reconsider reopening plans as the number of coronavirus cases swell. Dallas county had reported nearly 36,000 coronavirus cases so far.

Yesterday, Governor Greg Abbott said Texas schools would be allowed to extend online-only classes after the Texas Education Agency (TEA) initially said schools could lose funding if they remained online-only for more than three weeks.

Abbott said the state would ease up its stringent reopening requirements as the number of cases and hospitalizations continued to grow.

My colleague Kenya Evelyn brings us more context on the coronavirus surge:

Covid-19 infections are rising in 41 US states, with some southern hotspots taking crisis measures on Thursday, including calling in military medics and parking mobile morgue trucks outside hospitals, echoing scenes in New York City when it became the center of the world outbreak in the spring.

The spread of the virus has resulted in almost 56,000 hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the US currently. A month ago hospitalizations were rising in 11 states; now they are rising in 33 states.

Several states have been breaking records on many days in the last week as numbers rise. Florida set a record of almost 14,000 new cases on Wednesday as it became the focus of attention of the southern surge in Covid-19.

In other developments, Georgia governor Brian Kemp suspended local mask mandates on Wednesday, and early on Thursday, the Republican National Committee announced plans to scale back its national convention next month in Jacksonville, Florida, which it had moved from North Carolina before the surge of cases in Florida, hoping for fewer restrictions on crowds.

The RNC chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, confirmed the update in a letter to convention delegates, noting they will comply with local and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) health guidelines while adapting the events.

“We still intend to host a fantastic convention celebration in Jacksonville,” she wrote. “We can gather and put on a top-notch event that celebrates the incredible accomplishments of President Trump’s administration and his re-nomination for a second term – while also doing so in a safe and responsible manner.”

The Centers for Disease Contol and Prevention (CDC) has extended its’ no-sail order for cruises, blocking cruise ships docked at US ports from operating until at least 1 October.

Coronavirus cases have surged in Florida and California — where thousands of cruises would usually frequent. The CDC first put these restrictions in place in March. In the extension, which the public health authority announced today, it noted that between 1 March and 10 July, nearly 3,000 infections and 34 deaths were linked in cruise ships.

Eighty percent of ships within US jurisdiction were affected by Covid-19 during that time frame, the CDC said.

Industry group Cruise Lines International Association had already announced in June that members would voluntarily suspend cruises until mid-September.

Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh - reporting from the West Coast.

Following White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s suggestion that “The science should not stand in the way” of schools reopening, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) issued a scathing statement criticizing the administration’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

“Now the Trump administration wants to further risk the lives of teachers, children, staff, and their families just to soothe the president’s ego,” said Lily Adams, a DNC spokesperson. “This president would rather accept conspiracy theories and reject science than listen to public health experts. He can’t be trusted to make decisions about the lives of America’s children and their families.”

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• The White House suggested science should not determine whether schools reopen this fall. “The science should not stand in the way of this,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said of Trump’s push to reopen schools. She later added, “The science is on our side here.” McEnany’s comments come as a number of school officials express concern about the potential spread of coronavirus in the classroom.
• A new CDC report said Trump’s European travel ban was enacted too late to protect New York residents. “Although travel restrictions are an important mitigation strategy, by the time the European restrictions were implemented, importation and community transmission of Sars-CoV-2 had already occurred in NYC,” the report says. Although the rate of new infections has slowed significantly in New York, the city has lost more than 23,000 residents to the virus.
• The supreme court declined to block a Florida law criticized as a “poll tax.” Florida can continue to block people with felony convictions from voting until they’ve repaid all fines and fees they owe, the US supreme court ruled today. Florida Republicans passed the law after the state’s voters approved a 2018 initiative to restore voting rights to those previously convicted of felonies.
• The Republican National Committee is reportedly planning for a downsized nominating convention next month, as coronavirus cases rise in 41 states. According to reports, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a letter to delegates that attendance would be strictly limited at next month’s convention in Jacksonville, Florida.
• Russian state-sponsored hackers have been targeting organizations working to develop a coronavirus vaccine, British security officials said. The hacking efforts have been specifically targeting groups involved in vaccine work in the UK, the US and Canada.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Trump’s remarks on regulation rollbacks have taken an unsurprising turn toward the political, as the president unleashes an attack against Joe Biden.

Trump warned his Democratic opponent’s policies would kill jobs, make energy unaffordable and destroy suburbs.

“Suburbia will be no longer as we know it,” Trump said, warning Democrats would “watch it go to hell.” “Not while I am here,” Trump added. “The suburb destruction will end with us.”

The president specifically said he would discuss the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule next week to help suburbs. The AFFH rule requires federal agencies to further the purposes of the Fair Housing Act.

Trump’s promises to suburban Americans come as suburbs across the country, previously a Republican stronghold, increasingly shift toward Democrats.

During his remarks on rolling back regulations, Trump once again complained about the water pressure in energy-efficient showers.

“Showerheads, you take a shower, the water doesn’t come out,” the president said at his White House event. “You want to wash your hands, the water doesn’t come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer? Or you take a shower longer?”

Trump then added, “Because my hair, I don’t know about you, but it has to be perfect.” That comment attracted some chuckles and applause from the friendly crowd gathered on the South Lawn.

Trump has now appeared at the podium for his White House event on rolling back government regulations.

The president touted his own record on regulation rollbacks, boasting that his administration has made unprecedented progress in “freeing our citizens to reach their highest potential.”

Trump bragged that his White House has cut “nearly 25,000 pages of job-destroying regulations,” specifically praising his administration’s recent rollback of environmental regulations for infrastructure projects.

However, enviornmental activists have warned the infrastructure regulation rollback could put average Americans at risk of being harmed by quickly approved projects.