Vice President Mike Pence said at a briefing Friday that the Trump administration seeks to press ahead with reopening the country from pandemic-driven lockdowns but intends to do so safely as parts of the country experience a COVID-19 surge.
The count of new confirmed infections, provided by Johns Hopkins University, surged to an all-time high of 40,000 on Friday, eclipsing the previous high of 36,400, set on April 24, during one of the deadliest stretches in the crisis.
