President Donald Trump plans to travel to New York on Saturday to attend a football game during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"President Donald Trump plans to attend the annual Army-Navy football game on Saturday along with a limited crowd due to restrictions over the coronavirus pandemic," Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing "people familiar with the matter."
Instead of the game being played at a professional football stadium, as has been the recent tradition, this year's game will be played at Michie Stadium at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point.
The stadium has a current seating capacity of 38,000.
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Michie Stadium in 2008, photo by John Pellino - United States Military Academy Public Affairs Office.[/caption]
"Trump is nonetheless forging ahead with plans to watch the game between the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen in-person even as he faces criticism for failing to address the plight of Americans facing hardships due to the pandemic as cases and hospitalizations spike," Bloomberg reported. "More than 14.7 million people in the U.S. have been infected and about 282,000 have died, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."
The report on Trump's attendance came the same day New York's governor announced new metrics for regional shutdowns and ordered the state's hospitals to increase hospital bed capacity by 25% to absorb an expected surge in coronavirus cases.
It will be Trump's final Army-Navy game as president.
