50 ★ States
ALABAMA Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama has issued a prohibition on student gatherings, including off-campus parties and fraternity and sorority events, as the school tries to curb the spread of COVID-19.
ALASKA Anchorage: RavnAir Group, which halted operations in April, laid off staff and filed for bankruptcy because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, hopes to begin renewed service to its former hub communities in September under a new leadership team.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Possible exposure to a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 means some students at Kyrene del Milenio Elementary School must quarantine, the school’s principal has told parents, azfamily.com reported Saturday.
ARKANSAS Fort Smith: In her 28 years of teaching kindergarten at Fort Smith Public Schools, Cami Stancil had never made her students sit at desks. That will change Monday, when Arkansas Public Schools open with rules about how students are supplied, where they are allowed in the school and how they are allowed to interact with each other amid the coronavirus pandemic.
CALIFORNIA Ukiah: Schools in Mendocino County were forced to close this week when state officials said their coronavirus cases had been higher than previously reported, and several hundred students were sent home from class, officials said Friday.
COLORADO Fort Collins: Windsor Middle School has quarantined 37 students and 11 staff members after learning a student tested positive for COVID-19.
CONNECTICUT Danbury: Residents are being urged to take precautions after what officials have described as a “serious outbreak” of the coronavirus. State health officials issued a COVID-19 alert Friday night that recommended that residents stay home, avoid unnecessary outings, limit indoor gatherings and avoid attending church services.
DELAWARE Dover: Delaware is joining the list of states taking up President Donald Trump’s offer of additional unemployment benefits to millions of American affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washing
ton: A new giant panda cub is sparking pandemic-fueled panda-mania, and officials at the National Zoo said traffic on their livestream spiked 1,200% over the past week. The zoo’s Panda Cam traffic has been crashing since venerable matriarch Mei Xiang’s pregnancy was announced last week. When she gave birth Friday night, zoo officials said they had a hard time getting into their own livestream, and they’re now working to boost their capabilities.
FLORIDA Miami: The COVID-19 pandemic has done what 9/11 and Hurricane Andrew couldn’t do: It forced The Miami Book Fair to cancel its annual weeklong book frenzy at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus for the first time in 37 years. But the show will go on virtually – and it will go on for free.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Georgia on Saturday became the 10th state in the nation to report that it has surpassed 5,000 deaths caused by COVID-19.
IDAHO Boise: Idaho will remain in the fourth and final stage for reopening the economy for at least another two weeks as coronavirus infection rates and hospitalizations remain too high, Gov. Brad Little said.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Illinois’ incoming high school seniors have been struggling to register for standardized testing ahead of college application season after the coronavirus pandemic caused testing dates to be canceled.
INDIANA Indianapolis: After a monthslong break forced by the coronavirus pandemic, felony jury trials are set to resume in Marion County, home to Indianapolis and the state’s largest county court system. Marion Superior Court officials said major felony trials will begin this week, and lower felony, misdemeanor and civil trials would resume the week of Sept. 14.
IOWA Iowa City: The University of Iowa is cutting four athletic programs to cope with lost revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic.
KANSAS Wichita: The number of inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19 at a jail in Wichita has grown to more than 500. As of Friday, 523 inmates tested positive and 747 negative, KAKE-TV reported.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: A school district that reopened to in-person classes last week announced Friday that it would switch to virtual learning until at least Sept. 8.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Sixty percent of Louisiana’s parishes will continue to receive information about residents who have tested positive for the coronavirus under a data-sharing agreement they signed with the state – even as questions arise about whether local officials should continue to receive the personal health details.
MAINE Millinocket: One of the people who tested positive for the coronavirus after a wedding reception in Millinocket has died, a hospital said. There are more than 30 cases associated with the Aug. 7 event but only one of them was hospitalized.
MARYLAND Ocean Pines: Staff will stay home and two pools will be closed in an Ocean Pines resort community after another staff member was found Friday to have contracted COVID-19.
MASSACHUSETTS Brockton: The city has enacted a curfew to slow the spread of the coronavirus after state health officials deemed it a “higher risk” community. All residents and visitors are to remain in their residences between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. The curfew doesn’t apply to essential workers.
MICHIGAN Kalamazoo: A federal judge refused to block a requirement that Michigan’s migrant farm workers get tested for the coronavirus, rejecting claims that it violates the rights of Hispanics.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel wants to delay reopening campuses in the Twin Cities, Duluth and Rochester for two weeks in the wake of COVID-19 outbreaks at other U.S. colleges.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Dozens of Oak Grove High School students staged a walkout Friday to protest what they believed are lax rules around COVID-19 precautions and the handling of an alleged racially charged incident.
MISSOURI Clayton: St. Louis County will expand its requirement on face coverings, including a requirement that all students kindergarten through high school wear one. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the new guidelines were announced Friday. The guidelines are effective starting Monday.
MONTANA Billings: More than 30 inmates at the Yellowstone County jail have tested positive for COVID-19, an inmate at the Cascade County regional jail in Great Falls has also tested positive and a resident died at a long-term care facility in Flathead County where there has been an outbreak of the respiratory virus, officials said.
NEBRASKA Omaha: Colleges throughout the region have changed some of their residence and dining hall operating procedures to minimize the risk of a coronavirus breakout. Many college leaders said they want their campuses to be open for business because most students would rather be on campus than taking classes by computer from home.
NEVADA Reno: Teachers in Washoe County will receive free COVID-19 testing, the district said Friday. The tests will be done through a drivethrough site with Renown Regional Medical Center. The district said it also hired an employee health nurse who will answer questions and determine if an employee has symptoms that would warrant a test.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Laconia: Motorcycle Week is underway in Laconia, but some bars and pubs won’t be serving customers. Although indoor dining is allowed, standing at bars is not; customers must be served while seated. Some bar owners brought in new chairs to comply, but others, fearing crowds and the potential for fines or the loss of their liquor licenses, decided to shut down for the week.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: Bills that would require the state to prioritize protective gear for long-term care facilities and increase pay for workers in those facilities advanced in the state Legislature on Friday.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: New Mexico’s jobless rate has jumped to 12.7%, the highest for the state since the coronavirus pandemic began in the U.S. in March. The unemployment rate is up from 8.4% in June, reversing a steady downward trend since April, when the rate was 11.3%, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
NEW YORK New York City: A western New York couple’s big wedding is off – at least for now – after an 11th-hour court order in a fight between couples and the state over a 50-person limit on social gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic. A federal appellate judge in Manhattan on Friday granted a state request that blocks Pamella Giglia and Joe Durolek from having the 175person celebration they planned Saturday at a Buffalo-area golf club.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte are moving courses online in response to the pandemic, the universities announced Sunday.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Passenger traffic is starting to pick up again at North Dakota’s airports but remains less than half of what it was a year ago before the coronavirus pandemic drove people into their homes.
OHIO Columbus: Staff members at all Ohio assisted living facilities must undergo coronavirus testing under a public health order issued Friday that expands testing being done in nursing homes. The order, signed by interim Health Director Lance Himes, requires staff in such facilities to be tested and any residents who wish it.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health showed cities with mask mandates nearly cut in half their average number of new COVID-19 infections after three weeks, The Oklahoman reported Sunday.
OREGON Salem: Coronavirus cases in Oregon have declined during the past month, but in order for schools to reopen, the average amount of new cases a day needs to decrease from 250 to 60, state health experts said Friday. In order to reach that goal, Gov. Kate Brown said residents will have to continue to follow and enforce current statewide COVID-19 safety mandates or else bars and restaurants may have to close and travel restrictions will be implemented.
PENNSYLVANIA Pottsville: U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser said he is postponing public events after testing positive for the coronavirus.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The state’s arts sector lost more than 10,000 jobs and more than $436 million in sales from April until July as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a recently issued report by The Brookings Institution.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Gov. Henry McMaster wants lawmakers to simply copy and paste last year’s spending plan for the current budget year, asking state agencies to prepare for possible cuts if the economy continues to struggle amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Hundreds of Sioux Falls students didn’t participate in online learning last spring and all but vanished after the coronavirus pandemic drove the district to close classrooms. Keloland.com reported 700 children, or 3% of the district’s student body, never connected with their teachers during the last quarter of the year.
TENNESSEE Nashville: The state will provide an additional $300 per week in federal assistance to people who are unemployed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
TEXAS Brownsville: Efforts by officials in Cameron County to delay the start of in-person classes because of the coronavirus pandemic could face a legal challenge on claims of religious freedom.
UTAH Salt Lake City: The annual Christmas concert by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ choir has been canceled because of lingering concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. It will the first time since the holiday concert began in 1974 that the show has been canceled, said Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.
VERMONT Montpelier: The state has extended until the new year its emergency rules for how courts operate in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The judicial emergency declared in March means that jury trials are not being held and many court hearings are taking place online or over the phone, the court said.
VIRGINIA Salem: Roanoke College said it has removed six students for violating the student conduct code after three positive tests for COVID-19 that might have been related to an off-campus party.
WASHINGTON Pullman: The athletes weren’t the only ones affected when Washington State University’s fall football season was canceled by the coronavirus pandemic. Merchants in Pullman who depend on big football crowds said they are losing a major chunk of their annual income.
WEST VIRGINIA Parkersburg: Attendance at West Virginia high school football games will be limited to family members of players and coaches during the first few weeks of the season.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: A deputy with the Dane County Sheriff ’s Office who was believed to have contracted the coronavirus while on duty has died. Sheriff David Mahoney said Richard “Rick” Treadwell is believed to be Wisconsin’s first law enforcement officer to die from the virus after contracting it while on duty.
WYOMING Laramie: The University of Wyoming reported 61 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of Thursday, officials said.