HIGHLIGHT: LOUISIANA
Central: Buses and cars filled a church parking lot for another service Tuesday as worshippers flocked to hear a pastor facing misdemeanor charges for holding services despite a ban on gatherings amid the pandemic. A few protesters turned out, too, including a man shouting through a bullhorn against those gathering at the Life Tabernacle Church, where pastor Tony Spell has been holding services. Another demonstrator held up a sign reading: “God don’t like stupid.” Afterward, people began leaving the church, some chatting outside and many appearing not to be adhering to social distancing recommendations to remain at least 6 feet apart. Spell emerged from the church and said he doesn’t consider keeping his doors open any different from keeping the doors of Walmart or a hospital open.
ALABAMA Montgomery: Lawmakers on Tuesday adjourned the 2020 legislative session until late April as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state passed 1,000. Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh said lawmakers will likely pass “bare bones” budgets because of the uncertainty about the impact of the virus on tax collections.
ALASKA Juneau: A worker on Alaska’s North Slope tested positive for COVID-19, BP announced Tuesday. The state’s chief medical officer said the case is not counted in the state’s tally due to a quirk in reporting.
ARIZONA Flagstaff: Calls mounted Tuesday for the federal government to close Grand Canyon National Park after the popular tourist destination saw its first case of the coronavirus in a hospitality worker. The Navajo Nation also renewed a request for the park to close. Anyone headed to the park’s East Rim must drive through the tribe’s reservation, which has seen five deaths and nearly 150 cases.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The state may temporarily close some of its most popular parks over concerns that large numbers of out-of-state visitors are crowding them during the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Tuesday.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: The state’s extraordinary efforts to keep people home have bought the time needed to prepare for an expected peak surge of coronavirus cases in coming weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday. A spike of new cases has not come as quickly as expected, though Newsom was reluctant to say whether that means the impact on the state won’t be as dire as feared.
COLORADO Colorado Springs: Social distancing restrictions at the Air Force Academy have been relaxed after it reported two cadet suicides in less than a week following attempts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Emails obtained from the academy show the Colorado Springs base had received complaints about how the policies made the school prisonlike for about 1,000 seniors who remained on the campus, the Gazette reports.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: A second state prison inmate has tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Tuesday as tensions rose inside correctional facilities where prisoners are increasingly concerned about the coronavirus.
DELAWARE Dover: Too many people are ignoring orders to stay at home and keep their distance from one another as the state tries to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the state public health director said Wednesday. Dr. Karyl Rattay expressed frustration at the lack of cooperation officials are seeing, even among people who are most at risk of serious complications and death. “We keep hearing stories about individuals who are in the 70s, 80s, getting together for parties,” she said.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Colleges across the D.C. area have decided to cancel commencement ceremonies because of coronavirus concerns, WUSA-TV reports. Graduation for students at American University will still go on, but the ceremony will happen online.
FLORIDA Titusville: A gender reveal party mixed with explosives sparked a 10-acre fire Saturday in Brevard County, WESH-TV reports. The county has prohibited open burning because of an increase in fires, and officials are urging people to follow the rules and avoid calls that can strain medical resources during the coronavirus pandemic.
GEORGIA Savannah: Mayors pressed Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday to impose greater restrictions statewide in hopes of slowing the virus.
HAWAII Honolulu: Observatories on Mauna Kea, the state’s tallest mountain, have shut down operations in response to the governor’s stay-athome order aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
IDAHO Boise: The state has recorded 525 confirmed cases of coronavirus and nine deaths as of Wednesday, according to the government’s count on the state’s official website.
ILLINOIS Springfield: Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday extended his statewide stay-at-home order for three weeks as the nation struggles to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
INDIANA Indianapolis: Initial unemployment insurance claims surged to 120,331 in the state last week, and more than 1 in 20 Hoosier workers have now lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, the state reported.
IOWA Iowa City: The state’s three public universities have announced modified grading options as the COVID-19 pandemic forces students into online education instead of classroom instruction.
KANSAS Wichita: Gov. Laura Kelly took steps Tuesday to address what she described as hundreds of thousands of calls to the state labor office by making it easier for Kansans to receive unemployment benefits as the number of coronavirus cases in the state continued to grow.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: The state’s impact from the coronavirus pandemic worsened Tuesday with 114 new cases and seven more virusrelated deaths, Gov. Andy Beshear said. It was the highest number of cases and deaths reported in a single day in the Bluegrass State.
MAINE Augusta: The state recorded two more deaths from the new coronavirus, officials said Wednesday, as the governor’s new “stay-athome” order was poised to go into effect Thursday.
MARYLAND Annapolis: The state’s top legislative leaders said Tuesday that they were not ready to agree to a recommendation by the state elections board to have all ballots for the June 2 primary cast by mail, a measure that was suggested to protect poll workers from the virus.
MASSACHUSETTS Worcester: A sports arena is being converted to a field hospital for COVID-19 patients and should be ready just as the number of cases in the state is expected to peak within a couple of weeks, officials said.
MICHIGAN Lansing: The state is sending half of the 400 ventilators it received from the federal government to Detroit-area hospitals facing a surge of coronavirus patients, a state health department official said Wednesday. The remaining 200 breathing machines will be set aside for seven regions that have fewer patients at this time, said Lynn Sutfin, an agency spokeswoman.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Officials were scrambling Tuesday to set up 2,750 more hospital beds across the state to handle the anticipated surge in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The state Department of Corrections is temporarily stopping in-person checkins for people on probation, parole, house arrest or other forms of community supervision, as part of an effort to control the spread of the new coronavirus.
MISSOURI Kansas City: The coronavirus pandemic is ravaging nursing homes in the state. Health officials announced Tuesday that a resident in his 90s at the assistedliving facility Morningside of Springfield East died of the virus, bringing the number of deaths at that facility alone to five.
MONTANA Helena: Disability Rights Montana is asking the state Supreme Court to order the release of some inmates to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Gov. Pete Ricketts issued an executive order to loosen restrictions on hospitals and other health care facilities so that they can respond to a possible surge in patients suffering from COVID-19.
NEVADA Reno: Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a travel advisory Tuesday urging self-quarantines for visitors and returning residents as the state’s coronavirus death toll nearly doubled from three days prior.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: A man who lived in a group home for adults with disabilities has died from complications from COVID-19, and several other residents and staff members have tested positive.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: The state’s income tax deadline will move from April 15 to July 15, and the state budget deadline will move from June 30 to Sept. 30, in response to the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative leaders say.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: The state’s death toll from the pandemic increased to five with the case of a man in his 40s, as state officials on Tuesday said expanded testing will begin in an effort to target cases in which people have no symptoms.
NEW YORK New York: An army of health care workers has heeded the call for help reinforcing hospitals overwhelmed by the outbreak. So far, at least 82,000 people have volunteered for the state’s reserve force of medical workers.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: A deputy died while hospitalized in intensive care for treatment of the coronavirus, the sheriff said Wednesday. Meanwhile, an employee at Maury Correctional Institution in Greene County tested positive, the state Division of Adult Correction and Juvenile Justice said.
NORTH DAKOTA Minot: A police officer was quarantined at home after testing positive for the coronavirus, and five other officers who were in contact with that officer were self-isolating.
OHIO Columbus: The state Health Department said it’s received Ohio’s allotment of personal protective equipment from the national strategic stockpile. But Health Director Dr. Amy Acton said the supplies don’t meet the state’s needs and urged that supplies be conserved.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The number of Oklahomans infected with the coronavirus has increased by 154, and the number of COVID-19 deaths increased by seven, the Oklahoma State Department of Health said Wednesday.
OREGON Salem: A blue semi-truck pulled into the parking lot of the Marion Polk Food Share on Monday morning, delivering 21 tons of food to local pantries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The drop-off from the church is one of 13 occurring across the Mid-Willamette Valley.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: All residents must stay home as much as possible to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday as he dramatically expanded the quarantine’s footprint.
RHODE ISLAND Pawtucket: Two mayors are asking that a hospital that closed in 2017 be reopened to help deal with the pandemic. Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien and Central Falls Mayor James Diossa sent a letter to Care New England this week saying Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket could be used as a testing site, respiratory center or isolation center.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: As businesses considered nonessential close statewide, health officials are coming under increased scrutiny over information the state isn’t gathering or releasing about the spread of the virus. For a brief time last week, the Department of Health and Environmental Control released the number of COVID-19 cases in each ZIP code. But less than a day later, officials replaced it with a simple listing of each ZIP code with at least a case.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Gov. Kristi Noem on Tuesday signed nine emergency bills passed by the Legislature to address the outbreak of the coronavirus. The measures make a slew of changes like postponing local elections from mid-April until June, waiving state requirements on schools due to the coronavirus, and adjusting the state budget to distribute $93 million in federal aid.
TENNESSEE Sevierville: Officials want tourism businesses to stop soliciting tourists. The mayors of five cities in Sevier County urged leisure businesses to halt guests through mid-April, the Sevierville Police Department said in a post on Facebook.
TEXAS Austin: More than two dozen University of Texas students have tested positive for the coronavirus after a spring break trip to Mexico, public health officials said. A group of about 70 people in their 20s took a chartered plane to Cabo San Lucas about 10 days ago, the Austin Public Health Department said Tuesday.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Like much of the country, Utah has a shortage of protective masks. There are 27,000 in the state, compared to the more than 2 million needed, Gov. Gary Herbert said. So the state is looking for alternatives, including whether it’s possible to cleanse and recycle masks used by health care workers, he said.
VERMONT Montpelier: The state is ordering large retailers to stop the sale of nonessential products. Whenever possible, stores such as Walmart, Target and Costco must stop sales of nonessential items and require online or telephone ordering, delivery and curbside pickup.
VIRGINIA Falls Church: The Virginia Department of Corrections announced late Tuesday that three offenders had tested positive for COVID-19, marking the first confirmed cases among inmates in a state correctional facility.
WASHINGTON Seattle: Officials said 130 Washington National Guardsmen were preparing Wednesday to support food banks across the state. Karina Shagren, a spokeswoman for the Washington Military Department, said the hope is to have soldiers and airmen in place starting Friday.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Gov. Jim Justice on Tuesday acknowledged that his directive to have police monitor roads and check in on travelers from coronavirus hotspots might be unconstitutional, but he said it will continue for safety reasons.
WISCONSIN Madison: Gov. Tony Evers released another package of proposals to address the outbreak Wednesday as a poll showed broad support for actions he’s taken to close schools and businesses and limit gatherings to slow the spread of the virus. The Marquette University Law School poll showing Evers with 76% support for his handling of the pandemic so far came just after Republican leaders criticized his administration for not presenting more data.
WYOMING Casper: The Legislature will likely hold its first special session in more than 15 years to allocate emergency federal funding to address the coronavirus pandemic and possibly other matters, House Speaker Steve Harshman said.