The US late on Monday confirmed 59,222 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24 hours, Johns Hopkins University reported in its real-time tally.
That put the total number of cases in the US, the nation hardest-hit by the global pandemic, at more than 3.36 million, the Baltimore-based university said at 8:30pm.
Another 411 deaths were reported, bringing that total toll to 135,582.
Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The country has seen a resurgence of cases in the so-called Sun Belt, stretching across the south from Florida to California.
That uptick has prompted some states to backtrack on loosening their anti-virus restrictions — or to reinstate tougher measures.
On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, ordered the closure of indoor restaurants, bars, movie theaters, hair salons and houses of worship in 30 of the state’s worst-hit counties to stem the spread, including Los Angeles.
“We’re moving back into a modification mode of our original ‘stay-at-home’ order,” said Newsom, whose state is by far the largest by population and richest in the US.
Like the governors of Texas, Arizona, and Florida — which were also hit hard in the virus’ second spike — California delegated the reopening process to local jurisdictions, initially declined to issue a statewide mask order and reopened bars.
Newsom’s announcement came as education officials in Los Angeles and San Diego said schools would remain closed when classes resume with online-only lessons next month.
Elsewhere, the mayors of Houston and Atlanta are calling for a return to stay-at-home orders to staunch an alarming spike in cases, but are being hindered by state governors who favor less restrictive measures.
Officials in the greater Houston area, home to more than 6 million people, have called for a new lockdown after it saw nearly 1,600 cases in 24 hours.
“I strongly recommend that for the next two weeks, that if I were the governor, I would just bring things down, shut things down for the next couple of weeks,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, said over the weekend.
However, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, a Republican, has so far resisted, placing his hopes on a state-wide mask order to bring down the caseload.
Texas was among the first states to begin reopening, on May 1. Bars reopened on May 22, but the governor had to close them a month later, and made the wearing of the masks mandatory on July 3.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat who has had COVID-19, on Friday said she was bringing the city back to Phase 1 reopening — restrictive measures that allow only essential trips away from home.
This sparked a power struggle with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, who tweeted that her actions were “non-binding and legally unenforceable.”
Kemp in turn blamed Atlanta’s problems on Bottoms, accusing her of failing to enforce state restrictions.
In coronavirus-stricken Florida, more than 15,000 new cases were reported on Sunday, a state record, and the rate of deaths has also started to rise.
Until the new surge that began last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, bragged that his state’s laissez-faire approach was correct.
Since that time, he has ordered bars closed, but refused to issue mandatory mask directives or impose lockdowns, relying instead on local city and county authorities to make those calls.
Local leadership in Miami, which is also led by Republicans, have so far resisted — but that might soon change.
The number of COVID-19 patients in the city’s intensive care wards is seven times higher than it was in March and April, said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who also contracted the illness early on in the crisis.
Asked by CNN on Monday whether he would consider a stay-home-order, he said: “If we get to a point where we don’t feel like we can care for the people that are getting sick, that’s something that we’re going to have to strongly look at.”
US President Donald Trump’s administration’s policy is to recommend the use of masks and against the opening of bars — but nothing is mandatory. Trump has consistently played down the surge, repeatedly and falsely attributing it entirely to higher levels of testing.
“We have a lot of cases because we have a lot of testing, far more than any other country in the world,” he said on Monday.
However, experts say this explanation is inadequate, as the number of people hospitalized and the percentage of people testing positive is also rising in many states.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
‘KAMPAI’: It is said that people in Japan began brewing rice about 2,000 years ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol Traditional Japanese knowledge and skills used in the production of sake and shochu distilled spirits were approved on Wednesday for addition to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, a committee of the UN cultural body said It is believed people in the archipelago began brewing rice in a simple way about two millennia ago, with a third-century Chinese chronicle describing the Japanese as fond of alcohol. By about 1000 AD, the imperial palace had a department to supervise the manufacturing of sake and its use in rituals, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association said. The multi-staged brewing techniques still used today are
RSS