OF COURSE

White House Floats Idea Mexico Is Source of COVID-19 Spike

Officials reportedly spent a great deal of time on Thursday discussing Mexico’s role rather than the easing of restrictions in many states.

White House officials have reportedly tried to make the case that travel from Mexico is to blame for a surge in coronavirus cases across the U.S. rather than the easing of pandemic-related restrictions. Two administration officials cited by the Associated Press said the idea had been discussed at a meeting of President Trump’s coronavirus task force on Thursday. Arizona has been hit particularly hard by a spike in coronavirus cases, along with Texas, Florida, and North Carolina. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention works to trace the outbreaks, the White House coronavirus task force is said to be discussing the possibility that travel to and from Mexico is behind the upward trend. The country has been hit hard by the pandemic, with 133,000 confirmed cases, but that is only a fraction of the more than 2 million cases documented in the U.S. Cross-border travel has also declined substantially amid the pandemic.