August 23 coronavirus news

By Julia Hollingsworth, Jenni Marsh, Angela Dewan, Fernando Alfonso III and Amir Vera, CNN

Updated 12:10 a.m. ET, August 24, 2020
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11:50 p.m. ET, August 22, 2020

President Trump to hold news conference on Sunday to discuss "major therapeutic breakthrough"

President Trump will hold a news conference at 6 p.m. ET Sunday to discuss “a major therapeutic breakthrough” regarding coronoavirus, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced.

She said Alex Azar, Secretary for US Health and Human Services, Stephan Hahn, the head of the Food and Drug Administration, would be in attendance.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump accused the US Food and Drug Administration of deliberately delaying coronavirus vaccine trials without providing any evidence.

"The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics," Trump tweeted, continuing to push his unfounded theory that there is a "deep state" embedded within the government bureaucracy working against his reelection.

He accused the agency of delaying a vaccine for the virus until after the fall election, tweeting: "Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!" Trump ended his tweet by tagging the Twitter account of Hahn, who he nominated last year to take up the role.

Hahn assured Americans earlier this month that the agency "will not cut corners" to approve a vaccine.

Read more here.