11:30 A.M. EDT
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jul. 8, 2020) — According to CBS News’s White House timekeeper Mark Knoller on Wednesday morning, the White House Coronavirus Task Force formed in March will hold its second presser in as many weeks at 11:30 a.m. EDT.
The mainstream media does not appear to have reported the development as of this writing.
After a two-month hiatus, a briefing was held on June 26 in response to rising numbers of coronavirus, or “COVID-19,” cases in a number of Southwestern and Southeastern states. Since then, cases have also increased in Idaho, Delaware, Missouri and Iowa as well as Texas, California, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee and the Carolinas, among others.
On Tuesday, President Trump held a roundtable discussion with Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, who is an educator; HHS Secretary Alex Azar; Education Secretary Betsy DeVos; and educators and students to discuss how to safely reopen public and parochial schools in the fall, an endeavor the White House strongly supports.
On Tuesday evening, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appeared on “Hannity” to say that recent case increases in his state show that young adults are the most-heavily affected in numbers, although very few are requiring hospitalization. The same day, DeSantis’s education commissioner issued an order that public schools must reopen in August and hold classes “at least five days per week for all students.”
According to data reported by WTSP in Tampa Bay, as of July 4, 15% of those tested in the Sunshine State reveal a “positive” result for COVID-19.
In late April, as a six-week national stay-at-home recommendation was set to expire, Trump said he would leave decisions on when and how to reopen state economies to each governor with the caveat that the federal government could step in in the case of an egregious decision on the part of any governor. Although strenuously opposing Georgia’s early reopening of health spas, tattoo parlors and hair salons, the White House did not intervene, and, until recently, Georgia’s COVID-19 case numbers remained low.
States incurring increasing cases now are an inversion of sorts of Northeastern states where approximately 15% of the population tested early on showed a “positive” result. Although the current record-low infection rate in Connecticut and no deaths reported Tuesday “for the first time in months,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday placed an “indefinite pause” on the state’s reopening timeline, which would have permitted bars to open and gatherings of 50 people in “mid-July.”
Connecticut’s Phase 2 began June 17 and permitted restaurants to serve patrons indoors at 50% capacity.
In a turn of events after regularly-falling hospitalizations over time, 14 more Connecticut residents entered hospitals between Monday and Tuesday.
At 9:00 a.m., Fox News’s Sandra Smith reported the 11:30 briefing.