Barack Obama mocked Donald Trump for being "jealous" of the media coverage COVID-19 is getting since people are "too focused" on the virus.
The former US president spoke at a drive-in rally in Orlando, Florida for his vice president and now Democratic nominee Joe Biden. He took aim at the current president's handling of the pandemic and criticised him for turning the White House into a "hot zone".
"More than 225,000 people in this country are dead. More than 100,000 small businesses have closed. Half a million jobs are gone in Florida alone. Think about that," he said.
The United States has also recorded over 8.7 million cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 tally.
"And what's his closing argument? That people are too focused on COVID. He said this at one of his rallies, 'COVID, COVID, COVID', he's complaining. He's jealous of COVID's media coverage."
Trump did say at a rally in North Carolina on Sunday that the media was paying too much attention to the coronavirus.
He then tweeted on Monday that there is a "fake news media conspiracy", claiming the country's rising daily cases are due to increased testing rates.
Obama said: "If he had been focused on COVID from the beginning, cases wouldn't be reaching new record highs across the country this week, the White House would not be having its second outbreak in a month."
More than 83,000 cases were recorded in the US on Friday, marking a new record high in the number of daily new infections.
Also, 25 people in the White House, including Trump, tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in October. Then last week, staff working for Vice President Mike Pence also tested positive for the virus.
Obama criticised White House chief of staff Mike Meadows after he said Trump's administration wasn't going to control the pandemic.
"Winter is coming. They are waving the white flag of surrender," Obama said.
"Florida, we can't afford four more years of this, that's why we've got to send Joe Biden to the White House."
Trump tweeted Obama's speech was "fake" and he spoke to "no crowd". He also criticised Fox News for airing the rally.
