Washington: Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden has said he will not hold campaign rallies due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was reported on Wednesday.
“This is the most unusual campaign, I think, in modern history,” the BBC quoted Biden as saying at a press conference in Delaware on Tuesday.
“I’m going to follow the doc’s orders – not just for me but for the country – and that means that I am not going to be holding rallies.
“I won’t be holding rallies,” the former Vice President added.
Citing the pandemic, Biden has limited his public appearances, conducting interviews from a makeshift TV studio in his basement, leading the Trump campaign to dub him “Hidin’ Biden”.
On Tuesday, Biden took aim at the president for his handling of the pandemic.
“Month after month, as other leaders and other countries took the necessary steps to get the virus under control, Donald Trump failed us,” he said, before mocking Trump’s declaration that he was a “wartime President”.
“It seems like our wartime President surrendered, waved the white flag and left the battlefield.”
Biden’s announcement comes as top disease researcher Anthony Fauci told the US Senate that he “would not be surprised” if new virus cases in the country reach 100,000 per day, the BBC reported.
“Clearly we are not in control right now,” Fauci testified, warning that not enough Americans are wearing masks or social distancing.
On Tuesday, cases rose by more than 40,000 in one day for the fourth time in the past five days.
As of Wednesday morning, the US accounted for the world’s highest number of infections and fatalities with 2,629,372 and 127,322, respectively, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
Opinion polls show Biden with an almost double-digit lead over Trump as the November 3 election looms.
A poll published on June 26 indicated that Trump’s approval ratings were at their worst level (40 per cent) following protests against police brutality in the US and amid a surge in coronavirus infections in the country.
A record 58 per cent of voters disapprove of the job Trump’s doing at the White House, according to a new survey conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion together with the National Public Radio and PBS NewsHour.(IANS)
