Coronavirus updates: Trump hints at firing Fauci; New York to require COVID test for

As coronavirus cases once again surge around the country, the nation’s schools are also entering a new phase of reopening as some of the largest districts return for in-person instruction.

Most of the largest school districts have some form of in-person learning now, increasing since September when only two did.

Meanwhile, at a campaign rally in Florida on Sunday, President Donald Trump suggested he might fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the election. “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election,” Trump said as his supporters chanted “Fire Fauci.”

In California, authorities confirmed the 79th COVID-19 death of a state prison inmate. The inmate from Avenal State Prison died in a hospital on Saturday.

📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 9.2 million cases and 231,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: 46.6 million cases and 1.2 million deaths.

🗺️ Mapping coronavirus: Track the U.S. outbreak in your state.

This file will be updated throughout the day. For updates in your inbox, subscribe to The Daily Briefing newsletter.

President Donald Trump hinted that he might fire Dr. Anthony Fauci after the election, telling a raucous rally in Florida that the infectious disease expert got much wrong about the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump was responding to the crowd in Opa-locka, Florida, which began chanting “Fire Fauci” shortly after the president took the stage for the final of five rallies on Sunday night.

“Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election,” Trump said in response to the crowd.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, drew renewed criticism from Trump and White House aides following a weekend interview in the Washington Post in which he criticized Trump’s assertion that the nation is “rounding the turn” on COVID-19 despite a surge in cases and hospitalizations.

“We’re in for a whole lot of hurt. It’s not a good situation,” Fauci told The Post. “All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”

– John Fritze and Courtney Subramanian

The U.S. has entered a second round of back-to-school, just as the coronavirus surges around the nation. In smaller school districts, careful in-person reopenings in August and September didn’t lead to an explosion of COVID-19 cases. And now, the country’s largest school systems, which had largely eschewed in-person instruction, are venturing partially back into the classroom.

The majority of the 15 largest districts in the nation now have at least some students in school buildings. Only two of those districts had any form of in-person learning as of early September.

Large schools had faced bigger hurdles than smaller ones as they waited out case spikes in major cities and concerns grew about possible outbreaks in…