Donald Trump And Joe Biden In Final Full Week Of Campaigning As Virus Looms Large

President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Monday are down to the final full week of campaigning before the Nov. 3 election, as surging coronavirus cases and a COVID-19 outbreak within Vice President Mike Pence's staff keep the focus of the race on the pandemic.

Trump claimed progress in combating the disease even as the US set records in recent days for daily infections. Pence forged ahead with campaigning on Sunday despite close aides testing +ve.

Joe accused the Trump of surrendering to the pandemic that has killed about 225,000 people in the US. With 8 days to go before Election Day, more than 59.1 million Americans have already voted in person or by mail, a pace of early voting that could lead to the highest turnout rate in more than a century, according to data from the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida.

Push in the Southern state, which went for Trump in 2016 by about 5% points and has not backed a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992, shows Joe's effort to expand his party's reach as polls show a competitive race in the state.

Despite Biden's solid lead in national opinion polls, the contest in the most critical battleground states such as Florida and Pennsylvania that could decide the outcome appears closer.

Biden will be aided with an appearance in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday by former President Barack Obama, under whom he served as vice president.

The US has seen its highest number of new COVID cases in the past 2-days, offering Biden's campaign a chance to remind voters of how Trump and his allies have downplayed the advice of public health experts to wear masks and observe social-distancing guidelines to combat COVID-19 transmission.