USA TODAY International Edition
50 ★ States News from across the USA
ALABAMA Montgomery: Dine- in restaurants, bars, salons and gyms will be allowed to reopen with limits Monday as the state eases restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic.
ALASKA Anchorage: Domestic violence and sexual assault organizations in the state have experienced a 52% increase in hotline calls as residents remain at home, a study found.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Arizona State University economists say the state’s economic slide due to the coronavirus pandemic will last for months but be followed by a rebound that results in a recovery by early 2021.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The state is allowing pools and water parks to reopen this month with new capacity limits and other restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Hiking to the Hollywood sign and hitting the links were allowed again Saturday. Los Angeles County permitted the reopening of trails and golf courses, with social distancing restrictions.
COLORADO Aspen: Park officials have announced that bus service to the Maroon Bells Scenic Area in White River National Forest will likely not be operational this summer amid the coronavirus pandemic.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: The state health department distributed iPads to nursing homes Saturday with an order to help residents who have been unable to have visitors since March stay in touch with friends and relatives. The iPads, paid for with civil fines, were being delivered in time for Mother’s Day.
DELAWARE Dover: Delaware’s stateof- emergency order has been extended to the end of May as the state more than quadruples its testing capacity for the coronavirus.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Instead of welcoming crowds and hosting events during a normally busy spring season, the Walter E. Washington Convention Center is instead being used as a temporary alternative care facility as the spread of the coronavirus continues to lead to large gatherings being canceled across the D. C. region, WUSA- TV reports. Statistics released by local leaders show the virus has led to a $ 1.7 billion loss in travel spending.
FLORIDA Fort Lauderdale: More than 650 patients at nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the state have died from the new coronavirus, state data shows.
GEORGIA Atlanta: The number of patients hospitalized due to the coronavirus has fallen to its lowest total in weeks, Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday, as the state’s death toll from COVID- 19 reached at least 1,400.
HAWAII Lihue: Environmental groups in the state have joined a campaign to bring attention to discarded personal protective equipment that is adding to plastic pollution on shorelines amid the pandemic, advocates said. Personal protective equipment can be mistaken as food by birds, turtles and marine mammals and put animals at risk, the Surfrider Foundation said in a statement, adding that the used items could also carry pathogens.
IDAHO Kuna: At least 23 employees working at a beef processing plant near Boise have tested positive for the coronavirus, health officials confirmed Saturday.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The effort to reduce the population at Cook County Jail to slow the spread of the coronavirus hit another snag when the sheriff announced he has run out of electronic monitoring bracelets. The sheriff ’ s department said that will mean defendants who might have been put on home confinement will have to remain in jail.
INDIANA Indianapolis: Three women who moved to the U. S. as children have created a fund to help immigrant families who don’t qualify for government aid and have lost their jobs during the pandemic. The Undocumented Hoosier Support Fund will help about 800 families pay for utilities, medical expenses or a whole month’s worth of food.
IOWA West Liberty: A turkey plant that is the site of a coronavirus outbreak said Friday that hundreds of employees will be furloughed this fall due to the economic collapse.
KANSAS Lawrence: State parks saw a “significant” increase in visits last month, especially with new users. State Parks Director Linda Lanterman said the increase in the last weeks of April offset the revenue lost in March, when Kansas issued its stay- at- home order, the Lawrence Journal- World reports.
KENTUCKY Louisville: The coronavirus pandemic has put a bigger share of the state’s workforce out of a job than any other in America, new unemployment figures show. More than 670,000 Kentuckians – roughly one- third of the commonwealth’s workforce – filed for unemployment insurance for the first time from the week ending March 14 through the week ending May 2.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: The state will have 250 workers in place by the end of the week to contact people infected with the coronavirus and track down people with whom they have been in close contact, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Friday.
MAINE Portland: The state will reopen the economy in its rural areas sooner than its population centers, with many businesses reopening this month, the governor said Friday. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said retail stores in the more rural counties will be able to open with some limits Monday. Restaurants will be able to open May 18.
MARYLAND Baltimore: The state’s Democratic attorney general is defending Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s executive orders to combat the pandemic in a legal filing in federal court. Attorney General Brian Frosh’s office urged a judge in U. S. District Court in Baltimore to toss out a lawsuit filed last week challenging stay- at- home orders and other restrictions Hogan imposed.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The live Fourth of July concert with the Boston Pops along the banks of the Charles River has been canceled to help limit the spread of the coronavirus. The Pops announced Friday that the group will instead present A Boston Pops Salute to Our Heroes, designed to pay tribute to the frontline workers and honor those who have died during the current health crisis.
MICHIGAN Lansing: Restaurants and bars on Friday pushed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to let them reopen in three weeks, saying they need a lifeline to survive financially and a chance to show the public it is safe to return. Whitmer spokeswoman Tiffany Brown said the governor “will continue to listen to medical experts and put the health and safety of Michiganders first.”
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Metro Transit officials are trying to contain a homeless encampment that has grown to more than 100 people in the past month, as many men and women moved to “Camp Quarantine” amid fears they would catch the coronavirus in crowded shelters.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Barbershops, salons and gyms are allowed to reopen Monday, in Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ latest steps to gradually remove restrictions he has set because of the pandemic.
MISSOURI St. Louis: Experts aren’t clear why the coronavirus is striking the state’s two largest metropolitan areas so differently, although the geography of the areas might provide a clue. One theory is that the St. Louis community has a higher population density than Kansas City and simply had more of the virus circulating undetected at the time shutdowns clicked into place. The latter also is better shielded from initial hot spots by a larger geographic buffer.
MONTANA Shelby: A COVID- 19 outbreak that started at an assisted living facility and caused six of the state’s 16 deaths appears to be over, a state health official said Friday.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Businesses have started reopening in the state, even as the number of coronavirus cases surges, raising concerns among medical experts. Projections have long suggested the pandemic would peak at the end of April in Nebraska. But Dr. Mark Rupp, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said it appears cases have only plateaued at best – and at much higher levels than had been seen just weeks earlier, the Omaha World- Herald reports.
NEVADA Carson City: Restaurants, hair salons and some of the other businesses that closed or had their operations reduced under stateimposed restrictions to slow the coronavirus were able Saturday to reopen or once again allow customers inside their establishments.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Dentists can reopen their offices Monday, and public colleges are preparing to welcome students back to campus in the fall. But a decision on beaches might take a while, as the state continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: Gov. Phil Murphy announced that two American Red Cross convalescent plasma collection sites will begin operations this week in Fairfield and Newark. Officials say the blood plasma from recovered patients contains antibodies that may help critically ill patients fight the virus.
NEW MEXICO Rio Rancho: Republicans and sheriffs are asking U. S. Attorney General William Barr to look into Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s health orders aimed at stopping the spread of COVID- 19.
NEW YORK New York: After an outcry over racial disparities in the city’s enforcement of social distancing, the mayor planned Sunday to double the ranks of non- police workers trying to persuade people to comply with the policy.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: COVID- 19 remains a “lethal threat” to residents who don’t take it seriously, Gov. Roy Cooper said Friday, as rules to allow more businesses to open and the public to enjoy more of the outdoors took effect.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Theodore Roosevelt National Park resumed visitor access Saturday for day use of trails, picnic areas, roads and backcountry camping.
OHIO Columbus: Gov. Mike DeWine is acknowledging there are risks to reopening the state’s economy following closures due to the pandemic, but he says that “it’s really a risk no matter what we do.” Retail businesses will be allowed to reopen Tuesday. Barbershops, hair salons, day spas, nail salons and other services can start reopening Friday.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A local plastic supplier company has been receiving thousands of orders for custom- made protective barriers Allied Plastic Supply is working out contracts with a wide variety of clients to fit each business’ needs.
OREGON Astoria: Twelve more workers at Bornstein Seafoods have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the outbreak to 26.
PENNSYLVANIA Media: A suburban Philadelphia barbershop owner who had vowed to reopen over the weekend in defiance of the governor’s shutdown order instead hosted a rally calling for an end to the shutdown. Giovanni’s owner Nichole Missino on Saturday cited threats from the state board that licenses her and her business and from local police she said had promised action to revoke her occupancy license.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Gov. Gina Raimondo said she is signing an executive order that will give the Department of Health the authority to fine or even shut down businesses that fail to comply with face covering, social distancing and other guidelines. The state will conduct compliance inspections at businesses.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Restaurants throughout the state can reopen with limited, indoor dining service. Starting Monday, Gov. Henry McMaster said restaurants could open for indoor dining as long as they kept patrons to 50% occupancy, placed tables 6 to 8 feet apart, and followed stringent cleaning and sanitizing guidelines.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Gov. Kristi Noem on Friday told tribes to take down road checkpoints they had set up to keep out unnecessary visitors because of concerns about the coronavirus. The Republican governor said she would take legal action if the tribes didn’t remove the checkpoints in 48 hours.
TENNESSEE Gatlinburg: The reopening of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was a little too tempting of a draw Saturday as scores of visitors from dozens of states crowded trails and trekked into blocked- off areas, a spokeswoman said.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Rates of domestic violence are rising as the new coronavirus confines many Utahns to their homes, stretching resources for victims and stoking concerns as judges decline to order some arrests.
VERMONT Marshfield: Child care programs that had to close amid the coronavirus outbreak may reopen starting June 1, and camps may operate this summer under soon- to- be issued health and safety guidance, Gov. Phil Scott announced Friday.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Gov. Ralph Northam is laying out his plans for reopening the state this week, cautioning that the process will be gradual. He said his planned reopening – currently set for Friday – would be slow, cautious and deliberate.
WASHINGTON Olympia: Data from COVID- 19 projection models shows the rate of infection is increasing in the state, Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday, as he urged people to follow his measured approach to slowly reopening.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The West Virginia National Guard will assist in conducting tests for the coronavirus starting Monday at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant of about 940 workers in Moorefield.
WISCONSIN Madison: A decontamination system that can sanitize N95 respirator masks worn mainly by health care workers is ready for use in the state, Gov. Tony Evers announced Saturday.
WYOMING Gillette: The Campbell County Recreation Center reopened last week following an extended closure because of the COVID- 19 pandemic. Patrons were spread throughout the building and in open areas Wednesday morning, the Gillette News Record reports.