Coronavirus live news: Mike Pompeo pushes virus lab theory as Brazil passes 100,000 cases
Bolsonaro continues to stoke protests; Italy reports lowest deaths since lockdown began; France and UK trial tracing apps. Follow the latest updates
- Mike Pompeo: ‘enormous evidence’ coronavirus came from Chinese lab
- Boris Johnson: it was 50-50 whether to put me on ventilator
- Australia coronavirus – live updates
- Coronavirus latest: at a glance
- See all our coronavirus coverage
This is the setting for Tump’s Fox News town hall, by the way:
I’m sorry, what? pic.twitter.com/dKvjfG8SMq
President Trump is giving a sit-down interview with Fox news, and taking calls from viewers about the coronavirus.
Asked about a Covid-19 vaccine, he says: “We are very confident we are going to have a vaccine by the end of the year.”
Trump is asked about schools going back in the US in September: “We have to go back,” he says, adding that he is concerned about some older teachers and their possible exposure to the virus.
He’s criticising the Democrat’s response to the pandemic, implying it would suit their political purposes if the virus outcome was worse.
He talks about hydroxychloroquine, reminding viewers that he doesn’t own shares in the company that produces it: “We don’t lose anything with hydroxy …. people aren’t dying from it.”
He’s asked why he didn’t act earlier on the virus, and says his intelligence was that “on January 23 I was told there could be a virus coming but it was of no real import,” and then reminds viewers he stopped flights from China early.
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