Trump administration wants to blame Mexico for new wave of COVID-19 infections

The White House is looking to blame Mexico for the new spike in coronavirus infections to shield states from blame for reopening their economies too soon.

The administration's COVID-19 task force met Thursday to discuss what the new outbreaks had in common, two administration officials told the Associated Press, and some White House officials tried to pin the blame on travel from Mexico.

Arizona hospitals have been overwhelmed by the pandemic in recent days, and the outbreak has spiked in California, Texas and North Carolina.

The outbreak has hit the nation's Hispanic population especially hard in recent weeks, and the task force is looking at whether the spikes may be related to legal travel between the U.S. and Mexico, which has 133,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly 16,000 deaths.

That's dramatically fewer than the U.S., which has confirmed more than 2 million cases and more than 113,000 deaths.

Nearly half the states have seen an increase in new cases since their economies started reopening, especially after Memorial Day gatherings.

The U.S. and Mexico agreed in March to restrict nonessential travel, and cross-border travel is substantial lower than normal, although commercial and agricultural traffic remains active.