Donald Trump and Joe Biden clash on Covid-19 as they both hold rallies in battleground state Florida

Donald Trump and Joe Biden clashed over the Covid-19 crisis as they campaigned hours apart in Florida.

While Republicans tend to traditionally secure more votes on Election Day and early votes tend toward Democrats, the pandemic, which has killed more than 270,000 people in the US, has injected new uncertainty.

Mr Biden is framing his closing arguments to voters on what he describes as responsible management of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Trump is instead arguing Mr Biden would undo the economic gains of his administration with stricter, virus-targeting public health controls .

“The people are tired. They can’t do it anymore," Mr Trump said of lockdowns.

"Look, we were compared to Europe," he added. "'Germany is doing so well, France is doing so well, everyone's doing so well.' No, they're not doing well."

Millions of people in France will enter a second nation-wide lockdown today while Germany has imposed a month-long circuit breaker from Monday. 

However the US continues to record the highest death toll and most positive cases in the world with more than 8.9 million infections since the pandemic began.

Mr Trump continued to compare the US with Europe saying: "They're spiking up big, they're shutting down, they're locking down.

"I disagree with that because we're never going to lock down again. We locked down, we understood the disease and now we're open for business."

In comparison to Mr Trump’s rally, where supporters were packed together and many were seen without face masks, Mr Biden thanked his supporters for remaining by their cars to avoid the possible spread of Covid-19.

"I do miss the opportunity to just wander in and shake hands with all of you, but we decided a while ago that we were going to try to be responsible," said the former vice president.

Mr Biden kept up his assault on the president’s handling of coronavirus as he called out his rival for holding a “superspreader event” in Tampa.

"Donald Trump has given up," he said. “This is not a political statement, it's a patriotic duty, for God's sake!"

The pandemic’s consequences are escalating, with deaths climbing in 39 states and an average of 805 people dying daily nationwide — up from 714 two weeks ago.

Both candidates urged supporters to go to polling places in person, even as a tropical storm interrupted early voting in the south east.

The shift to focusing on in-person voting next Tuesday comes as more than 80 million Americans have already cast their ballots, absentee or by mail.

“You hold the power. If Florida goes blue, it’s over,” Mr Biden told supporters on Thursday.

Mr Trump and Mr Biden visited the western end of Florida’s Interstate 4 corridor, an area known for rapid residential growth, sprawling suburbs and its status as an ever-changing, hard-fought battleground during presidential elections.

The president had been scheduled to hit another sunbelt battleground state, North Carolina, on Thursday evening but cancelled his event in Fayetteville as Tropical Storm Zeta brought strong winds to the area.

Mr Biden was forced to wrap his speech up early at a drive-in rally at the Florida State Fairgrounds In Tampa due to a torrential downpour.

On Friday, Mr Trump is to visit three upper Mid-west states. He will hold a trio of rallies on Saturday in Pennsylvania before launching a whirlwind tour of battlegrounds including Florida, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania in the closing 48 hours of the race.

Mr Biden heads later in the week to three more states Mr Trump won in 2016: Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, where he’ll hold a joint Saturday rally with former President Barack Obama.

Mr Biden’s campaign also announced he would visit Minnesota on Friday, hours before Mr Trump holds a rally in one of the few Clinton-voting states the president hopes to pick up this year.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.