LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is warning local elected officials that they risk losing state funding if they don’t enforce health orders as the coronavirus pandemic worsens.
Newsom has rolled back or limited some businesses reopening in Los Angeles and 20 other counties, now including San Diego. Recently reopened bars, indoor restaurant dining and other indoor entertainment venues were ordered closed in those counties for at least three weeks.
About 200 state inspectors fanned out Friday to look for violators over the long Fourth of July weekend. The new enforcement strike teams issued seven citations in their first day of operation.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
— Florida reports nearly 9,500 new virus cases.
— Confirmed coronavirus cases are rising in 40 of 50 states.
— Kim Jong Un urges North Koreans to keep up virus fight.
— South Africa’s hospitals bracing for surge of virus patients.
— Pubs in England can reopen on Saturday for the first time since they were closed on March 20 as part of the coronavirus lockdown. Those that reopen will have to make sure they are safe for staff and customers alike.
— With coronavirus-related restrictions being eased and temperatures climbing, people are flocking back to the Jersey Shore. And with the July Fourth holiday on the horizon, that’s making some people nervous.
— Nearby South American countries are grappling with uncontrolled spread of the novel coronavirus, but Paraguay appears to be controlling the disease. It’s had just a few thousand confirmed cases and a few dozen deaths.
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Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Authorities in California say two more death row inmates have died from apparent complications of the coronavirus in the midst of an outbreak that has infected 40% of inmates at San Quentin State Prison.
The corrections department says Scott Erskine and Manuel Machado Alvarez died Friday.
Erskine was on death row for the 1993 murder of two boys, 9 and 13, in San Diego. Alvarez was there for a 1987 series of crimes that included rape, robbery, carjacking and murder in Sacramento.
There have now been two dozen deaths from COVID-19 in California’s prison system.
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WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — Tribal police for the Navajo Nation and the New Mexico National Guard plan to enforce a curfew to shut down the Navajo reservation during the Fourth of July weekend.
The sprawling reservation has been trying to contain a coronavirus outbreak. Tribal President Jonathan Nez says the curfew will run from 8 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday. He says it is the first of three consecutive weekend lockdowns.
Nez warns that enforcement on the reservation that spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah will be strict.
The tribe reported 64 new confirmed coronavirus cases Friday and two more deaths.
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MIAMI — As coronavirus infections surge across Florida and hospital authorities nervously count their available intensive care beds, the state’s most populous county is closing down again, imposing a curfew and closing beaches over the Fourth of July weekend to contain the spread.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew begins Friday night and will be in place indefinitely. A new county order also closes casinos, strip clubs, movie theaters, the zoo and other entertainment venues a month after they were allowed to reopen.
Florida reported 341 new hospital admissions of COVID-19 patients on Friday, the biggest daily jump since the pandemic began, along with 9,488 new confirmed cases and 67 deaths.
The mayor’s order also tightens mask rules at restaurants, requiring customers to wear facial coverings at all times unless eating or drinking. Under the previous order, customers were allowed to remove masks when they sat down.
The mayor said Miami-Dade police will be checking businesses to enforce mask and capacity rules, and closing establishments in violation.
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HONOLULU — A U.S. judge will not stop Hawaii from enforcing a quarantine on arriving travelers. U.S. District Judge Jill Otake says in a ruling that the emergency mandate is reasonable during the public health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
A group of Hawaii, California and Nevada residents tried to stop the quarantine by filing a lawsuit alleging it is unfair and unnecessary.
Gov. David Ige has announced that starting Aug. 1, travelers will be able to bypass the quarantine if they test negative prior to arriving. The testing plan is similar to one in Alaska.
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LOS ANGELES — California is heading into the Fourth of July weekend under classic sunny summer skies and new health orders that temporarily put many popular beaches off-limits in an effort to prevent runaway coronavirus infections.
A few surfers were in the water at Los Angeles’ Venice Beach and a few dozen people strolled the boardwalk or shoreline early Friday, but the normal Independence Day throngs are missing.
With testing showing a rising COVID-19 positivity rate and increasing hospitalizations, Gov. Gavin Newsom has rolled back or limited some of the reopening of business sectors in counties encompassing nearly three-quarters of the state’s population.
The holiday beach closures began Friday from Los Angeles County northward through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. To the south in Orange County, hugely popular beaches such as Huntington and Newport were to close Saturday and Sunday, while San Diego did not plan any shutdowns. Many Northern California beaches were open but parking was closed at some to reduce the potential for crowding.
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GENEVA — The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief says “we need to put up a fight now” during a peak in the current wave of the coronavirus pandemic — rather than focusing on when a second wave might come.
Dr. Michael Ryan said the world will be much better at fighting a second wave, if people can learn the lessons of fighting the first wave.
WHO officials emphasized mask-wearing, social distancing, and hygiene by individuals, along with contact-tracing and tracking of cases by health authorities as key strategies to fight the virus. They say governments and individuals should contour their policies and behavior based on the outbreak’s status in their countries.
Ryan said the world was experiencing a “second peak in the first wave” — a situation in which the virus hasn’t been suppressed enough to quell transmission to end the first one.
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TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas has reported another big increase in new coronavirus cases that capped its worst two-week spike since the pandemic began.
The state health department released its latest figures Friday as a statewide mask mandate from the governor took effect.
The Department of Health and Environment reported that Kansas has had 15,919 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, up 929, or 6.2% since only Wednesday. Kansas also has reported 277 COVID-19-related deaths, up five in two days.
Kansas reported an average of 276 new coronavirus cases a day over the past two weeks. That was the largest 14-day average since the state confirmed its first case March 7. The previous peak for the 14-day average was 271 on May 11.
Gov. Laura Kelly’s mask order requires people to wear masks in public and at their workplaces. However, state law allows the state’s 105 counties to opt out, and even if they don’t, officials don’t expect vigorous enforcement.
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama reported more than 1,700 new confirmed coronavirus cases — the highest number yet for a single day — as doctors and state officials expressed concern about further spread during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
The state on Thursday surpassed the previous high-water mark for the most infections reported in a 24-hour period while the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 also reached a new high of 843.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey urged people to use precautions during the holiday weekend. The state saw an uptick in cases in the weeks following Memorial Day.
According to the state Department of Public Health, Alabama has reported more than 41,000 cases of the coronavirus since the pandemic began with more than 25% of infections being reported in the last two weeks. So far, at least 983 Alabamians have died after contracting the virus.
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PHOENIX — Arizona has reached new peaks in hospitalizations and emergency room visits, indicating the state is only intensifying as a coronavirus hot spot.
State health officials say the capacity of hospital intensive care units is at an all-time high of 91%.
The number of people hospitalized Thursday due to a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 was 3,013, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. It’s the first time reaching 3,000.
People who went to the ER because of COVID-19 symptoms numbered a record 1,847, nearly 500 more than a day earlier.
The state reported Friday 4,433 confirmed cases and 31 deaths. The total stands at 91,858 cases and 1,788 deaths.
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NEW YORK — New York state reported 918 new coronavirus infections and nine deaths, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
It’s the first time more than 900 new infections have been reported since June 12, when 916 people tested positive for the virus statewide.
“The more than 900 new cases in New York yesterday, while representing just 1.38% of tests, is a reminder that the virus is still here,” the Democratic governor said in a news release.
He added, “I cannot repeat enough that our actions today — those of individuals being smart and following all precautions, and local governments enforcing the state’s guidelines — will determine which direction these numbers go.”
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BATON ROUGE, La., — Only 63 Louisiana state prison inmates will be released through the furlough program that state officials developed in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Louisiana Department of Corrections created a review panel in April to consider up to 1,100 state prison inmates for temporary release. The Advocate newspaper reports the panel reviewed fewer than 600 cases before it was suspended on June 5, when Louisiana entered Phase 2 of reopening.
About 100 people were approved and 63 will be released, corrections department spokesman Ken Pastorick said. Louisiana has the nation’s highest incarceration rate, with approximately 32,000 prisoners.
Most inmates considered were in local jails, not state prisons, the paper reported. Candidates had to be within six months of their release date, among other criteria. No one convicted of a violent crime or sex offense was considered. The meetings weren’t open to the public and advocates criticized the plan for its limited scope.
Sixteen inmates at Louisiana’s state prisons have died from the coronavirus, according to corrections department data.
Louisiana recorded its largest daily coronavirus case spike since April on Wednesday, with nearly 2,100 new cases.
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RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro approved a law requiring masks on streets and in public transportation to help prevent coronavirus infections.
However, he vetoed clauses requiring masks in churches, schools, shops and factories. Bolsonaro says forcing people to use masks in such places could violate property rights.
He also vetoed an article enabling the government to provide masks to vulnerable groups and requiring commercial establishments to provide masks to their employees.
As in the United States, use of masks has become contentious and sometimes politicized in Brazil. Bolsonaro only occasionally covers his face in public and often mingles with crowds.
Even in cities where masks have been obligatory, compliance and enforcement have been lax.
Brazilian cities last month started lifting restrictions even as COVID-19 cases and deaths surged. Latin America’s most populous nation has confirmed more than 61,500 deaths and nearly 1.5 million infections, the second most in the world behind the U.S.
Experts say both are undercounts due to the lack of widespread testing. On Thursday, Brazil reported its second-highest daily increase in cases, more than 48,000, and nearly 1,200 deaths.
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HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is joining health officials in Allegheny County and Philadelphia in recommending that people returning to Pennsylvania from a coronavirus hot spot to stay at home for 14 days.
The Democratic governor’s administration singled out the following 15 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
The rising number of COVID-19 infections in the Pittsburgh area helped drive Pennsylvania’s number of confirmed new cases to 667, the state Health Department said Friday.
Wolf issued a more expansive order to wear masks this week. Five House Republicans issued a statement questioning the science behind using a mask to contain the virus.
Pennsylvania’s confirmed death toll from the coronavirus pandemic rose by 34 to more than 6,700. There have been nearly 89,000 confirmed cases.
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Burundi’s new government appears to have reversed course, announcing screening of suspected clusters of the coronavirus.
However, there’s no requirement to wear a face mask in Burundi, which has 170 confirmed virus cases. The United Nations Development Program donated 14 million masks, along with other supplies, to the East African nation on Friday.
Burundi’s previous government had said divine protection would suffice, and it kicked out the World Health Organization’s country director.
Now the government is conducting screenings, along with providing cheaper soap and lower water bills. But Health minister Thaddee Ndikumana remains suspicious of outside influence: “We will never accept the vaccine of COVID-19 because Burundian people are not a field of experimentation.”
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ROME — The governor of Italy’s northeastern Veneto region says he’ll crack down on people who test positive but refuse to quarantine or give details to health authorities about recent contacts for tracing.
After days of fewer than a dozen daily confirmed infections, Veneto’s new cases increased to 20 on Thursday. Gov. Luca Zaia says next week he’ll present a new ordinance aimed at ensuring those testing positive stay home in isolation until further testing indicates they have cleared the virus.
Said Zaia: “If we continue to go around without masks in crowds, continue to give credence to conspiracy-believers, those who think the virus was invented by Big Pharma, Martians or came aboard some spaceship, it’s inevitable” that Veneto’s cases numbers will rise again.
Veneto, which early on stressed widespread testing, has had only a fraction of confirmed cases and deaths than its neighbor, Lombardy, by far Italy’s worst-stricken region.
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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced he’s tested positive for the coronavirus.
He says he felt a ’slight fever,” immediately quarantined at home and later tested positive for the coronavirus.
Qureshi is the senior most government official to contract the virus. Pakistan’s infection rate has been steadily climbing as Prime Minister Imran Khaneased restrictions saying the country’s fragile economy would collapse under a strict lockdown and the poorest would suffer the most.
Khan has gone on national television to ask Pakistanis to wear masks and social distance, but the vast majority largely ignore the precautions. Confirmed infections reached 221,896 on Friday and more than 4,500 deaths. Pakistan has pulled back on testing to around 20,000 tests a day from a high of more than 32,000.
Four Parliamentarians have died of COVID-19 disease, one from the federal legislature and three provincial Parliamentarians.
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