50 States
ALABAMA Montgomery: The city is struggling with maintenance at the historic Oakwood Cemetery amid the coronavirus pandemic. State inmates on work release usually do most of the maintenance. But work release details have been canceled since March because of COVID-19.
ALASKA Anchorage: The municipal government has projected a $17 million revenue shortfall for 2020 because of the economic impact of the coronavirus.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Elections officials should suspend plans to help voters in nursing homes and hospitals cast ballots through video calls, Gov. Doug Ducey said in a letter to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Arizona provides special election boards to people in hospitals and long-term care facilities, allowing them to cast a vote in person without being in a traditional polling place. But with long-term care facilities hit hard by COVID-19, visitor restrictions can make the job more difficult for special election boards, so in some places they are adjusting with technology.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: A lawsuit filed Tuesday asks a federal judge to require state election officials to give absentee voters a chance to correct their ballots before they’re rejected due to signature issues. A spike in absentee ballots is expected in the state because of the pandemic.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: More of the state was cleared to reopen additional businesses Tuesday, including most of the San Francisco Bay Area, with coronavirus infection rates at their lowest level of the pandemic.
COLORADO Denver: Gov. Jared Polis announced furloughs of state workers due to pandemic-related budget cuts and warned Tuesday about a third wave of coronavirus outbreaks if the state’s upward trend continues.
CONNECTICUT Preston: The state is providing a $7 million loan to the Mystic Aquarium, a nonprofit that’s been hit hard financially after being forced to close for almost four months because of the pandemic.
DELAWARE Dover: Delaware’s Emergency Management Agency is planning to add eight to 10 pop-up testing sites each week that will respond to COVID-19 outbreaks.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Women’s Food Fest, running from Wednesday through Sept. 30, aims to help promote women-owned small businesses in D.C. that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, WUSA-TV reports.
FLORIDA West Palm Beach: The school district is scrambling to find substitute teachers after a large number of teachers chose to stay home as students returned to schools for the first time since March. The Palm Beach County district said 944 teachers did not show for work Monday when students who chose the inschool option returned to classrooms.
GEORGIA Athens: COVID-19 infections at the University of Georgia declined for the second week in a row, with 163 positive tests, the university reported Wednesday. But UGA is also listing higher numbers from earlier weeks than first reported.
HAWAII Honolulu: Beginning Thursday, the city will allow social gatherings of up to five people, including at beaches and hiking trails. Retail businesses will be allowed to open at 50% of capacity.
IDAHO Pocatello: The chief medical officers of two hospitals have warned state public health officials that their facilities are close to being overwhelmed by patients infected with the coronavirus.
ILLINOIS Springfield: The state Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported 1,531 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 30 more confirmed deaths, with Illinois’ sevenday positivity rate at 3.5%. The latest COVID-19 numbers come as the city of Chicago placed Wisconsin on its 14-day quarantine list.
INDIANA Indianapolis: A statewide mask order will continue for another three weeks under a new order the governor announced Wednesday even as he has faced public discontent over coronavirus restrictions amid his reelection campaign. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb said he would be dropping most other limits on businesses and crowd sizes as of Saturday.
IOWA Des Moines: Health officials are working to determine what is causing a spike in coronavirus cases in the northwest corner of the state, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday. Sioux County has a 14-day positivity rate of 30%. Lyon and Osceola counties have rates above 20%.
KANSAS Topeka: Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s office blocked a legislative committee from obtaining a list of the state’s personal protective equipment suppliers, a Republican lawmaker told colleagues Tuesday.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: The state won swift federal approval for another infusion of extra unemployment payments for many people who lost work during the COVID-19 outbreak, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday, a day after he announced his administration requested the supplemental $400 in weekly benefits for another three weeks.
LOUISIANA Natchitoches: Northwestern State University has set an enrollment record this fall in spite of the coronavirus pandemic.
MAINE Madison: An employee at a nursing home where a coronavirus outbreak has killed seven residents worked while she had COVID-19 symptoms, the Bangor Daily News reports. The certified nursing assistant at Maplecrest Rehabilitation & Living Center in Madison documented her symptoms in a log but apparently didn’t tell her supervisors, who didn’t review the log.
MARYLAND Baltimore: State officials say fatal drug overdoses and alcohol-related deaths are rising. Officials from the Maryland Department of Health and the Opioid Operational Command Center said the pandemic is exacerbating people’s addictions as they’re quarantined.
MICHIGAN East Lansing: Health officials are searching for answers after coronavirus cases linked to Michigan State University students and staff rose to more than 1,200. “I’m kind of feeling like I’m running out of tools in my toolbox. I’ll find some more,” said Linda Vail, the Ingham County health officer.
MINNESOTA St. Cloud: Gov. Tim Walz praised staff at South Junior High on Tuesday as part of his statewide safe learning tour. “We asked you to do what had never been asked before,” Walz said of the planning that went into creating learning models – in person, hybrid or distance – between which districts will transition based on COVID-19 case rates and outbreaks.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The state Department of Health reported 552 new coronavirus cases and 24 new related deaths Wednesday.
MISSOURI O’Fallon: St. Louis County is relaxing some restrictions on youth sports as coronavirus positivity rates have decreased among children in the region, County Executive Sam Page said Wednesday. The new regulations fall short of allowing high-contact high school sports such as football and ice hockey to resume. But Page said if the trend continues to improve, there may be a “path forward” to allow play to begin later this fall.
MONTANA Helena: The state is seeing a “remarkable increase” in COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks, Montana’s medical officer said Tuesday, as officials urged residents to step up measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and seasonal influenza.
NEBRASKA Omaha: An outbreak of the coronavirus has occurred at a nursing home in Blair, with more than two dozen residents and staff infected, health officials said. The Three Rivers Public Health Department said 24 residents and eight staff members had recently tested positive at Crowell Memorial Home.
NEVADA Las Vegas: About 100 people gathered outside the governor’s private home in the city to protest a mask mandate intended to limit the spread of COVID-19. Political action committee No Mask Nevada planned the Monday demonstration after Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak implemented the order, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The state’s U.S. senators are joining several New England colleagues in seeking $10 billion in federal funding for bus, motorcoach and passenger ferry companies struggling because of the coronavirus.
NEW JERSEY Jersey City: Catholic, Jewish and Muslim day schools throughout the metro area say they’ve been inundated with calls from families who have had it with remote learning and are willing to pay hefty tuitions. About one-third of all New Jersey districts have started school on an all-remote basis.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: The state has depleted its unemployment benefits trust fund and begun to use federal loans to keep up with claims – spending that can trigger higher taxes if not repaid, a top labor official said Tuesday.
NEW YORK Albany: Family members of incarcerated New Yorkers and corrections officers are calling on lawmakers and the governor to ensure prisons and jails won’t again face a staffing shortage, barriers to social distancing and dangerous rationing of protective gear ahead of the next COVID-19 surge or pandemic. Testing of people with symptoms at the state’s prisons and New York City jails revealed thousands of COVID-19 infections among incarcerated individuals and guards, who called on the state and New York City to act at a Tuesday legislative hearing.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: College and professional sports teams may soon be allowed to host a few thousand fans in outdoor stadiums, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The state Department of Health said Wednesday that it’s adjusting coronavirus testing and contract tracing to address a recent uptick in cases among residents and staff at longterm care facilities. Health officials are prioritizing the testing of that population over all other testing, with every effort to return the results of those tests within 24 hours.
OHIO Columbus: Indoor visits with residents of nursing homes will be allowed once again as cold weather approaches, Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The number of reported coronavirus cases in the state rose by more than 1,000 for a seventh consecutive day Wednesday, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
OREGON Ontario: An incarcerated man at the Snake River Correctional Institution died Monday after testing positive for COVID-19, officials said.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: Legislation to loosen Gov. Tom Wolf ’s pandemic restrictions on bars and restaurants passed the state Senate on Tuesday. The GOP-controlled Senate voted 43-6 for a bill that would end the requirement that customers buy food in order to purchase alcohol and permit patrons to be served drinks at the bar. Wolf ’s press secretary said the Democrat will veto the bill if he gets it in its current form.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The state has been added back to the list of states whose residents are required to quarantine for 14 days when traveling to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Some teachers across the state took a personal day Wednesday to fight for safer classrooms amid the pandemic as well as an annual, small raise that was frozen after the economy crashed because of the virus.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The state on Wednesday reported 445 new cases of COVID-19, the highest number in a single day since the pandemic started. South Dakota’s sevenday average for COVID-19 test positivity remains among the highest in the nation.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Gov. Bill Lee has announced that farm and forestry businesses are getting $55 million in aid funded by the federal coronavirus relief package.
TEXAS Austin: The death toll from the coronavirus in the state approached 15,000 on Tuesday. Health officials say there are more than 716,000 confirmed cases in Texas so far. The death toll sits at 14,994.
UTAH Provo: Utah County has implemented a face mask mandate as COVID-19 cases surge in the state. The order came hours after Gov. Gary Herbert announced he would increase pandemic restrictions in two Utah County cities, Provo and Orem.
VERMONT Montpelier: Schools are poised to move to the next stage of reopening Saturday, including allowing greater use of facilities, more mixing of students and the start of interscholastic sports, the state’s top education official said Tuesday.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Ten inmates at Deerfield Correctional Center, a prison that holds many elderly and otherwise vulnerable inmates, have died from COVID-19, officials said.
WASHINGTON Bremerton: Kitsap County has received over $4.1 million in federal and state funding to help renters and homeowners affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the most money that’s been available for such help in years. Now, local officials are working to make sure that money goes to those who need it, especially among people of color, immigrants and other communities that have been underserved by social services.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The state’s former public health director and the majority leader of the state Senate say they’ve tested positive for COVID-19.
WISCONSIN Madison: State health officials are recommending against trick-or-treating as usual this Halloween amid the coronavirus pandemic.
WYOMING Cheyenne: News reporters on urgent deadlines will need to file a time-consuming public records request in order for the Wyoming Department of Corrections to answer any questions after the agency lays off its public information officer, a state corrections official said Tuesday. The policy change set to take effect Oct. 8 has raised questions about how the department plans to quickly inform the public about urgent safety matters such as escaped inmates or the spread of COVID-19.