JUDY WOODRUFF: New COVID-19 infections are on the rise in 42 states, as the total number
of U.S. cases nears the three million mark.
In the hardest-hit areas, hospital intensive care units are filled to the brim with patients,
and communities are grappling with testing shortages and delays.
John Yang begins our coverage.
JOHN YANG: The burden of new COVID-19 cases is still growing, with 28 states today reporting
spikes in hospitalizations. In Florida, more than four dozen hospitals say their intensive
care units are completely full.
Governor Ron DeSantis dug deep into those numbers for a silver lining.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): As we have seen more traffic into hospitals in the past few
weeks, we're seeing a smaller number of residents of longer-term care facilities admitted.
And so, look, we obviously would like to not be here, not to have anyone admitted, but
those residents of the long-term care facilities, and when they are admitted, they have a much,
much higher rate of mortality. And so to see that decline is something that's very, very
positive.
JOHN YANG: Cases in Florida have now topped 300,000, but that hasn't stopped officials
from pushing to reopen the state.
On Monday, the state's education commissioner ordered schools to reopen in the fall, a move
President Trump said today he hoped will be mirrored across the country.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: What we want to do is, we want to get our
schools open. We want to get them to open quickly, beautifully, in the fall.
JOHN YANG: Harvard is among many colleges and universities saying that, beginning this
fall, all instruction will be online. That's a problem for international students.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says students at schools that are fully online
won't be allowed to enter the country, and if they're already here, they will have transfer
to an institution with at least some in-person instruction or leave the country.
It threatens the visas of more than a million students, many from China.
Today, China's Foreign Ministry tried to offer some assurance:
ZHAO LIJIAN, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman (through translator): China is now closely
following the U.S. moves on relevant policies and will make utmost efforts to protect the
legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students in the U.S.
JOHN YANG: In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, who from the outset dismissed the threat of
the coronavirus, said he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is taking hydroxychloroquine,
a malaria drug President Trump has touted, but has not been proven against coronavirus.
JAIR BOLSONARO, Brazilian President (through translator): It started on Sunday, July 5,
with a certain feeling of unwell that worsened during the day on Monday, July 6, with malaise,
tiredness, a bit of muscle pain and a fever.
JOHN YANG: Over the weekend, he attended a Fourth of July celebration at the U.S. Embassy
hosted by Ambassador Todd Chapman. Photos of the two showed no evidence of precautions
like distancing or masks. Today, the embassy said Chapman, a career diplomat, had tested
negative.
Even though Brazil has the world's second highest number of cases behind the United
States, it does not have a coordinated national policy to contain the virus. European countries
that imposed tough restrictions early on are already eying a return to more normal life,
from pubs in Britain to the newly reopened Louvre museum in Paris.
Australia, once considered a success story, is again cracking down. Its second largest
city, Melbourne, reimposed a six-week lockdown in an effort to beat back a new surge of infections.
DANIEL ANDREWS, Premier of Victoria: I think a sense of I think that each of us know we
have got no choice but to take these very, very difficult steps.
JOHN YANG: A recognition that the virus is far from being fully contained.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm John Yang.
JUDY WOODRUFF: This afternoon, President Trump said it was ridiculous that Harvard will do
its instructions online, and he accused the school of taking the -- quote -- "easy way
out."
We will take a closer look at the reopening of the nation's K-12 schools later in the
program.