Trump visits Arizona, where virus has surged

US President Donald Trump inspected the US-Mexico border wall and addressed young conservatives in Arizona on Tuesday, the same day the number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases and hospitalizations from those infections hit the highest single-day total in the state since the start of the pandemic.

The state broke its daily record for new infections with 3,591, bringing its total to 58,179, as the state's COVID-19 death toll rose by 42 to 1,384. Daily hospitalizations exceeded 2,000 for the first time, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Arizona joins California, Texas and Florida as the states recording the biggest surges of coronavirus cases.

California reported more than 5,000 new infections Monday, surpassing its previous record of 4,515 recorded the day before. Hospitalizations also increased to more than 5,000.

In Texas, Republican Governor Greg Abbott said Tuesday that the state surpassed 5,000 new coronavirus cases in one day.

The number of hospital patients with COVID-19 in Harris County, which encompasses Houston, has nearly tripled since May 31.

"Our power on the local level was stripped away, and we started opening up," said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Monday. "I said two months ago I thought we were moving too quickly, too fast, and now we find ourselves where we are today."

A day after surpassing 100,000 total cases of coronavirus, Florida reported another 3,289 cases Tuesday morning. Several cities in Miami-Dade County, including Miami, have announced that masks will now be required in public.

In a statement before Trump's arrival in Arizona, former vice-president Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presidential candidate, called Trump's decision to hold a rally in Phoenix "reckless and irresponsible" given spikes in the number of infections in the state.

During a tour of sections of the border wall near Yuma, Trump accused Biden and congressional Democrats of being weak on border security.

"The Biden people — and he's controlled totally by the radical left, as you understand, he's not controlling, they're controlling him — they want open borders, they want criminal sanctuaries, they want everything that doesn't work," he said.

In Phoenix, the president was scheduled to go to Dream City Church for a "Students for Trump" event. Organizers said they expect more than 3,000 mostly young attendees to comply with the city's new mask ordinance.

But Trump — along with Governor Doug Ducey, US Senator Martha McSally and US Representative Debbie Lesko, who accompanied the president on his third trip to Arizona in five months — didn't wear a mask.

Anyone who registered for the event was required to sign a waiver.

"By attending this convention, you and any guest voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to Covid-19 and agree not to hold Turning Point Action, their affiliates, Dream City Church, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury," it said.

A similar waiver was required of those who attended Trump's rally Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Trump's campaign said Monday that two staffers who attended that rally tested positive for coronavirus. Eight of the Trump advance team staffers in Tulsa have now tested positive for coronavirus.

Arizona is considered a critical state for Trump to win in November. In the 2016 presidential election, he won the state by a margin of 3.5 percentage points. A Real Clear Politics average of state polls shows Biden with a 4 percentage-point lead.

"They should be very concerned about Arizona," said former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele to The Wall Street Journal. "We are still in the middle of a national pandemic, the economy is still in a very deep hole and now you have civil unrest along racial concerns. The president's voice in these areas has fallen short."

The Trump campaign said in a statement, "Arizonans trusted President Trump with their votes in 2016 and he's delivered on everything from tax reform, to trade, to border security." The statement predicted he would win the state again.

The second presidential debate between Trump and Biden set for October has been moved to Miami after the University of Michigan on Tuesday morning withdrew from hosting it.

The Presidential Commission on Debates said in a statement later Tuesday that the university concluded that it wasn't feasible to hold the debate there.

The Detroit Free Press on Monday quoted sources as saying the school would announce its withdrawal because of concerns of bringing the campaigns, media and supporters of both candidates to the campus during a pandemic.

Michigan, with 16 electoral votes, is a major battleground state for the 2020 presidential election.

The debate will now be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami on Oct 15. The Arsht Center was the site of the first Democratic presidential primary debate last year.