U.S. Vice President Mike Pence received his Covid-19 vaccine live on television on Dec. 18, seeking to shore up public support for vaccinations after U.S. deaths from the coronavirus topped 3,000 for a third straight day.

Former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton said they were willing to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus on television in order to ease any public skepticism over the safety of new vaccines.

UW Health University Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin has been rushing to convert available space into units for Covid-19 patients, as the state’s medical facilities struggle to keep pace with a surge in new infections.

The United States saw the country’s highest-ever number of new Covid-19 cases in the past two days, keeping the pandemic a top election issue as Vice President Mike Pence travels the U.S. to campaign despite close aides testing positive.

The United States reported more than 55,000 new COVID-19 casesy, a new daily global record for the coronavirus pandemic, as infections rose in a majority of states.

Governors in U.S. states hardest hit by the novel coronavirus sparred with President Donald Trump over his claims they have enough tests and should quickly reopen their economies as more protests are planned over the extension of stay-at-home orders.

As some U.S. states look to start reopening their coronavirus-battered economies amid protests from supporters of President Donald Trump anxious to get back to work, hardest hit New York state began mandating the wearing of masks or face coverings in public to contain the pathogen’s spread.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence promised that Americans would have access in the days ahead to more than 2,000 laboratories capable of processing coronavirus tests, and a leading expert said the country would launch a new phase of testing for the fast-spreading disease.

The United States is preparing for thousands of new coronavirus cases and will ask Americans returning from abroad to go into “self-quarantine” for 14 days as part of the effort to contain the outbreak, Vice President Mike Pence said.

On the same day the White House tapped Vice President Mike Pence to lead the government response to the coronavirus, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) tapped George Scangos to head up its own response to the outbreak, which causes the COVID-19 disease.