Trump signs coronavirus relief executive orders, blames Democrats for prolonged stalemate
Fox News' Mark Meredith reviews President Trump's four executive orders he signed Saturday after Congress could not push through another coronavirus relief bill.
The United States neared another grim milestone Sunday, approaching 5 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus -- as deaths attributed to the virus topped 162,000.
Johns Hopkins University pegged the U.S. total at 4,998,105 as of Sunday morning, while The New York Times claimed its own database showed the U.S. already surpassing the 5 million mark.
The U.S. continues to have the highest number of cases in the world, with Brazil and India trailing in second and third place, The New York Times reported.
Brazil has now joined the U.S. with more than 100,000 coronavirus deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
On Saturday, President Trump signed four executive orders that included a $400-a-week supplemental unemployment payment to out-of-work Americans – short of the $600 weekly benefit that expired at the end of July and Democrats wanted to extend – following a stalemate in Congress.
Trump also announced an extension of student loan relief and protections from evictions for renters and homeowners.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Trump's actions "weak."
TRUMP ORDERS $400-PER-WEEK UNEMPLOYMENT PAYMENTS AMID COVID CRISIS, HITS DEMS FOR STONEWALLING
“Today’s meager announcements by the president show President Trump still does not comprehend the seriousness or the urgency of the health and economic crises facing working families," Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement Saturday. "We’re disappointed that instead of putting in the work to solve Americans’ problems, the President instead chose to stay on his luxury golf course to announce unworkable, weak and narrow policy announcements to slash the unemployment benefits that millions desperately need and endanger seniors’ Social Security and Medicare."
Cases were rising in seven states, including Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, which had the sharpest spike proportional to population, the Times reported.
California, Florida and Texas have the highest total numbers of cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. passed 4 million cases a little more than two weeks earlier, on July 23, The Times reported.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said this month that drugmakers will likely have tens of millions of vaccine doses ready by early next year and at least 1 billion by the end of 2021 but cautioned the vaccine will likely be far from 100% effective.
Fox News' Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.
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