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President Donald Trump threatened Monday morning to move this August's Republican National Convention out of North Carolina if the state's Democratic governor doesn't guarantee that coronavirus restrictions will be lifted and the convention will have full access to Charlotte's Spectrum Center.

In a series of tweets, Trump said thousands of Republicans were planning to head to North Carolina in August. He added, "They must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied. If not, we will be reluctantly forced to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site."

Gov. Roy Cooper has moved North Carolina to phase two of its coronavirus reopening plan, and indoor gatherings currently are limited to 10 people.

The Charlotte Observer reported that Vice President Mike Pence said Trump was making “just a very reasonable request of the governor of North Carolina.”

“We all want to be in Charlotte. We love North Carolina. Having a sense now is absolutely essential because of the immense preparations that are involved, and we look forward to working with Gov. Cooper, getting a swift response and if need be moving the national convention to a state that is farther along on reopening and can say with confidence that we can gather there,” Pence said during an appearance Fox News' "Fox and Friends."

Pence had mentioned Texas, Georgia and Florida as three states that have reopened more quickly, the Observer reported.

"State health officials are working with the RNC and will review its plans as they make decisions about how to hold the convention in Charlotte," Gov. Cooper's office said in a statement. "North Carolina is relying on data and science to protect our state's public health and safety."

The Republican National Convention is scheduled Aug. 24-27. The Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee was moved from mid-July to Aug. 17-20 because of coronavirus concerns.

More than 1.64 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S., and more than 97,700 people have died in the country because of the new coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, more than 345,000 people have died and 5.4 million people have been infected.

Latest Developments

United States:

-The Trump administration sent its national testing strategy to Congress late Sunday. In it, the administration pledges to buy 100 million swabs by the year’s end and distribute them to states to help expand the nation’s capacity to test for the novel coronavirus. Beyond that, the plan places primary responsibility for carrying out diagnostic tests to help curb the pandemic on the states, according to the Washington Post, which obtained a copy of the report. Four top congressional Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, issued a statement Monday that said, "This disappointing report confirms that President Trump’s national testing strategy is to deny the truth that there aren’t enough tests and supplies, reject responsibility and dump the burden onto the states."

-Monday's Memorial Day observances — somber times to recall the sacrifices of war — take on an added significance as the U.S. nears 100,000 deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. President Trump appeared at Arlington National Cemetery and was scheduled to visit the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore. Fort McHenry is where Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the poem in 1814 that would become "The Star-Spangled Banner." Baltimore's mayor said Trump's trip sets a bad example when the city's residents are being asked to stay at home.

-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden made his first in-person appearance in more than two months when he placed a wreath at a veterans park near his Delaware home on Monday for Memorial Day. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, wore masks, in contrast to Trump, who has refused to cover his face in public as health officials suggest. Biden's visit to the park was unannounced and there was no crowd waiting for him. His campaign said he has gone to the park for Memorial Day often in the past, though services were canceled Monday because of the coronavirus pandemic.

-The White House announced foreigners who have been in Brazil in the previous 14 days will not be allowed to enter the U.S. The ban takes effect Thursday and does not apply to U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.

-President Trump announced in an interview that was broadcast Sunday that he had completed a two-week regime of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. "Finished, just finished, yeah. ... And by the way, I'm still here," Trump told Sinclair Broadcast's program "Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson." He added that he received nothing for promoting the treatment, which experts warned against using. "I believe in it enough that I took a program because I had two people in the White House that tested positive. ... But hydroxy has had tremendous, if you look at it, tremendous, rave reviews," he said.

Worldwide:

-World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization will temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments in light of a paper published last week in the Lancet that showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems. Other treatments in the study, including the experimental drug remdesivir and an HIV combination therapy, are still being pursued.

-Spain announced international travelers will no longer have to quarantine for two weeks beginning July 1.

-Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will lift the state of emergency across the entire country Monday night. Much of Japan entered the state of emergency on April 7. It has since been lifted across most of the nation and businesses have reopened and social activities have slowly resumed.

-A second suspected case of a mink transmitting the coronavirus to a human has been detected in the Netherlands, the country’s agriculture minister Carola Schouten said. The minister said there was a “negligible” risk of animal-to-human transmission of the virus outside the mink farms. Last week, the ministry said a farm worker was infected with a coronavirus strain that was genetically similar to one circulating among mink.

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

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