Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe.

It is Monday, August 2nd, and we have so much to get to this morning.

There's some breaking news from the Olympics.

Simone Biles will compete again announcing she'll get back up on the balance beam.

And the women who stepped up in her absence are continuing with their improbable

medal run will have their incredible stories.

There's also a different kind of international incident playing out of the games.

A Belarusian Olympic sprinter is at the airport in Japan,

alleging Belarusian officials tried to force her back to her home country for criticizing

her team officials. We'll have the update on that. And here in the U.S., we're following comments

from minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who now claims he was only joking when he said it would be hard not to hit Nancy Pelosi with the gavel if he becomes House Speaker.

We begin, though, in what was overall a very difficult weekend for the United States in the ongoing fight against the coronavirus.

The new wave is taxing hospital emergency rooms again.

With the health officials warning, things could get a lot worse.

NBC, political correspondent Von Hilliard, has more.

The United States topping 100,000 new coronavirus cases just Friday, a stunning fourth wave,

with the number of infections and seriousness of the moment rising each day.

Things are going to get worse.

If you look at the acceleration of the number of cases, the seven-day average has gone up substantially. The virus surging in states from the

west to the east, cases doubling in more than 40 of them over the last two weeks.

This is a class five hurricane. More Florida residents tested positive for COVID this weekend

than at any other point during the pandemic. Hospitals in Jacksonville and Orlando are already breaking previous hospitalization

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