The US currently has the highest number of cases and the highest number of deaths in the world.
On Sunday, the US reached a confirmed number of 5million coronavirus cases according to the latest figures from the John Hopkins University data tracker.
This news was announced as President Donald Trump signed executive orders seeking to break a political impasse over further economic relief as he proposed a reduction in federal enhanced unemployment benefits, payroll tax cuts and protection against evictions.
On Friday in Washington, discussions regarding further aid for the unemployed during the pandemic, as well as states struggling with a public health crisis, collapsed.
Trump has put forward new measures, including resuming the federal unemployment benefit enhancement package which ran out last month, but with cuts from $600 a week to $400, $100 of which would be supplied via the states themselves.
Trump also discussed extending protections against evictions for renters, however these turned out to be a proposal to examine such a move.
Presidential candidate, Democratic Joe Biden, published a statement on Medium in which he discussed the US reaching 5million coronavirus cases. He wrote: “It’s a number that boggles the mind and breaks the heart”.
He added: “Five million is more than the entire population of Alabama – or of more than half the states in our union, for that matter. Each time the number clicks up, it represents a life altered, a family stricken with anxiety, a community on edge. And for the families of the more than 160,000 souls who have died because of this virus, it is a pain that can never be undone.”
He continued, saying: “And yet, we continue to hear little more from President Trump than excuses and lies in an effort to cover for his repeated failures of leadership – failures that worsened the pandemic here at home, and in turn deepened our economic crisis.”
