MELBOURNE, Australia — Five more Victoria residents died from COVID-19 as the Australian state recorded 357 new cases in the past 24 hours.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews refused to rule out further restrictions but said Saturday the mandatory wearing of masks was the current strategy to stop the spread.
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MELBOURNE, Australia — Five more Victoria residents died from COVID-19 as the Australian state recorded 357 new cases in the past 24 hours.
There are now nearly 4,000 active cases in the state and of those, 313 are health care workers.
— South Korea reports case spike, US states tighten controls
— England’s new rules on masks-wearing took effect Friday, with face-coverings required to enter banks, stores and food shops. Refusing to follow the rule can result in hefty fines. Romania has reported a record for daily infections as few people wear masks; France is requiring tests for travelers from the United States and 15 other countries.
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
The figures released Saturday by South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought the national caseload to 14,092, including 298 deaths.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Friday that some lines of people waiting to buy drinks were so long they became “a gathering in themselves, and no mask-wearing and the like.”
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi’s governor is setting new restrictions on bars and social gatherings to curb the spread of the coronavirus among a group that he describes as “young, drunk, careless folks.”
The governor says that “our bars must look more like restaurants and less like mobs of COVID-19 spread.”
It says management and musicians are is “committed to collaboratively exploring creative ways to continue to connect with our patrons and return to performing if conditions allow.”
Andrews says, “If they are worn by everybody, we may not need to go further. We can’t rule out going further with rule changes, but it’s a big game changer.”
A child wearing a protective face mask, stands in line to receive a free meal in the Peronia neighborhood of Villa Nueva, Guatemala, Friday, July 24, 2020. The Villa Nueva City Hall delivers hot meals three times a week in a selected area of the neighborhood for residents who have been economically affected by the COVID-19 restrictions related to the government-ordered shutdowns. (AP PhotoMoises Castillo)
There are now nearly 4,000 active cases in the state and of those, 313 are health care workers.
The deaths take Victoria state toll to 61 and the national figure to 145. Victoria recorded 300 new cases on Friday, down from 403 on Thursday.
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
Dr. Diana Pacheco, left, and nurse Claudia Flores Martinez prepare to attend to their next patient, as they conduct COVID-19 testing inside a mobile diagnostic tent, in San Gregorio Atlapulco in the Xochimilco district of Mexico City, Friday, July 24, 2020. The capital's health secretariat has erected mobile testing units in the areas of the city hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but only a limited numbers of testing kits are available each day.(AP PhotoRebecca Blackwell)
— South Korea reports case spike, US states tighten controls
— Extra unemployment aid expires as virus threatens new states
— US sued over expulsion of migrant children detained in hotel
— At a convent near Detroit, 13 nuns have died of COVID-19. The toll is seven at a center for Maryknoll sisters in New York, and six at a Wisconsin convent that serves nuns with fading memories.
Nurse Claudia Flores Martinez, right, assists Dr. Diana Pacheco as she collects samples from a COVID-19 test, inside a mobile diagnostic tent, in San Gregorio Atlapulco in the Xochimilco district of Mexico City, Friday, July 24, 2020. The capital's health secretariat has erected mobile testing units in the areas of the city hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but only a limited numbers of testing kits are available each day.(AP PhotoRebecca Blackwell)
— England’s new rules on masks-wearing took effect Friday, with face-coverings required to enter banks, stores and food shops. Refusing to follow the rule can result in hefty fines. Romania has reported a record for daily infections as few people wear masks; France is requiring tests for travelers from the United States and 15 other countries.
— Recovering from even mild coronavirus infections can take at least two to three weeks. That’s according to new U.S. research published Friday. It found that even among young adults, 1 in 5 had lingering symptoms. Cough, fatigue and body aches were among the most common persistent symptoms.
Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
A woman carries her toddler in San Gregorio Atlapulco in Xochimilco, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, in Mexico City, Friday, July 24, 2020. (AP PhotoRebecca Blackwell)
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has reported 113 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours — its first daily jump above 100 in nearly four months.
But the rise was expected as health authorities had forecast a temporary spike driven by imported infections found among cargo-ship crews and hundreds of South Korean construction workers flown out of virus-ravaged Iraq.
A waiter wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus works in a discotheque in Madrid, Spain, early Saturday, July 25, 2020. Nightlife is becoming the new target of Spanish authorities attempting to contain a spike in coronavirus infections since the country ended a lockdown. The Catalonia regional government has shut nightlife venues in Barcelona, and on Friday officials in Madrid said they were considering a similar step. (AP PhotoManu Fernandez)
The figures released Saturday by South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought the national caseload to 14,092, including 298 deaths.
The agency says 86 of the new cases are linked to international arrivals, while the other 27 involved local transmissions. It says the imported cases include 36 South Korean workers who returned from Iraq and 32 crew members of a Russia-flagged cargo ship docked in the southern port of Busan.
NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans’ mayor is shutting down the city’s bars because of rising coronavirus numbers and is also forbidding restaurants to sell alcoholic drinks to go.
A DJ performs in a discotheque in Madrid, Spain, early Saturday, July 25, 2020. Nightlife is becoming the new target of Spanish authorities attempting to contain a spike in coronavirus infections since the country ended a lockdown. The Catalonia regional government has shut nightlife venues in Barcelona, and on Friday officials in Madrid said they were considering a similar step. (AP PhotoManu Fernandez)
Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Friday that some lines of people waiting to buy drinks were so long they became “a gathering in themselves, and no mask-wearing and the like.”
Cantrell says the city is seeing daily increases in confirmed coronavirus cases about double its threshold of 50 a day for more relaxed rules. The rule against take-out sales of alcoholic drinks takes effect at 6 a.m. Saturday.
The mayor’s orders came as the Louisiana Department of Health reported more than 2,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases, for a total of 103,734. New Orleans’ total rose 103, to 9,752.
A public safety worker sprays a disinfectant solution on the outside of a building in San Gregorio Atlapulco in Xochimilco, which has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, in Mexico City, Friday, July 24, 2020. (AP PhotoRebecca Blackwell)
JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi’s governor is setting new restrictions on bars and social gatherings to curb the spread of the coronavirus among a group that he describes as “young, drunk, careless folks.”
Gov. Tate Reeves said Friday that coronavirus infections have been rising steadily in people in their 20s who are not being responsible under the current regulations.
Bars and restaurants in the state have been able to open if they use only 50% of their capacity. Under the new rules, they also must require that customers be seated to order alcohol and alcohol sales will end at 11 p.m.
A young woman, second left, whose husband tested positive for COVID-19, talks to the doctor as she prepares to get tested along with her brother-in-law, right, at a mobile diagnostic tent in San Gregorio Atlapulco in the Xochimilco district of Mexico City, Friday, July 24, 2020. The capital's health secretariat has erected mobile testing units in the areas of the city hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but only a limited number of testing kits are available each day.(AP PhotoRebecca Blackwell)
The governor says that “our bars must look more like restaurants and less like mobs of COVID-19 spread.”
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has canceled its 2020-21 indoor season due to the coronavirus outbreak and “unforeseen economic pressures.”
Orchestra management and the Orchestra Committee that represents musicians released a joint statement announcing the cancellation.
People wait in a distanced line to get a COVID-19 test at a mobile diagnostic tent in San Gregorio Atlapulco in the Xochimilco district of Mexico City, Friday, July 24, 2020. The capital's health secretariat has erected mobile testing units in the areas of the city hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but only a limited numbers of testing kits are available each day.(AP PhotoRebecca Blackwell)
It says management and musicians are is “committed to collaboratively exploring creative ways to continue to connect with our patrons and return to performing if conditions allow.”
The statement didn’t elaborate on the ”unforeseen economic pressures.”
CAIRO — A humanitarian group says 97 medical workers in Yemen have died of the coronavirus, the first reliable estimate to give a glimpse into the pandemic’s impact on the devastated health sector in the war-torn country.
A public safety worker sprays a disinfectant solution on a street in San Gregorio Atlapulco in the Xochimilco district of Mexico City, Friday, July 24, 2020, amid the new coronavirus pandemic.. (AP PhotoRebecca Blackwell)
The report by MedGlobal elies on accounts from Yemeni doctors tracking the deaths of colleagues to gauge the toll of the virus. The 97 dead include infectious disease experts, medical directors, midwives and pharmacists.
Even before the pandemic Yemen had just 10 doctors for every 10,000 people. The country’s health system is in shambles after five years of war that has spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Half of its medical facilities are dysfunctional.
Yemen’s internationally recognized government has reported 1,674 confirmed coronavirus infections and 469 deaths.
HONOLULU -- The first hurricane to threaten the United States since the start of the coronavirus pandemic is presenting new challenges for Hawaii, even though officials there are long accustomed to tropical storms.
Meteorologists say Hurricane Douglas should weaken by the time it hits Hawaii with strong winds, heavy rainfall and dangerous surf beginning Sunday.
But Honolulu authorities are having to prepare extra shelter space so people can maintain physical distance from others.
Evacuees at Honolulu shelters also will have their temperatures taken. Those with high temperatures or with a travel or exposure history will either be isolated at that shelter or taken to a different site.
Officials are reminding people to make sure they have masks and hand sanitizers in their emergency supply kits.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Health officials in Oregon say nine more people have died from COVID-19 — the highest number of deaths reported in one day in the state since the pandemic began.
The Oregon Health Authority said Friday the newly recorded deaths raise the state’s toll for the pandemic to 282.
The authority also said there were 396 new confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, bringing Oregon's case total to more than 16,100.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s expanded face-covering mandate for anyone 5 years or older went into effect Friday.
LOS ANGELES — California prosecutors have charged two brothers in an alleged assault of Target security guards during a brawl in May after they refused to wear face masks because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Los Angeles city attorney said Friday that Phillip and Paul Hamilton refused to wear masks at the Target store in Van Nuys and started a melee as they were being escorted out. One of the security guards suffered a broken arm.
It was not immediately clear if the brothers had attorneys who could speak on their behalf.
Los Angeles has required face coverings since April 10.