Sizzling heat wave blankets US Southwest

LOS ANGELES - Much of the western United States baked for a third day on Wednesday under a punishing heat wave that has set temperature records, prompted health warnings and strained power grids.

Although a shift in the weather has provided some relief to northern states, including Montana and Idaho, the worst was still to come for California and parts of the Southwest, National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Schoening said.

"We're in a long-duration heat wave across the Western U.S.," Schoening said. "Across the desert Southwest extending into California we're still ramping up the temperatures throughout the rest of the week."

Salt Lake City, Utah, on Tuesday tied its all-time high temperature since record-keeping began in 1894, at 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius). Phoenix tied a record for this date at 115 degrees and Needles, California, in the Mojave Desert near the border of both Nevada and Arizona, hit 121 degrees, also tying a daily record.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings across the U.S. West, warning that such conditions can be dangerous, even fatal. No deaths had been reported from the brutally hot weather as of Wednesday afternoon.

"Try not to spend too much time outside during the hottest part of the day. Wear light clothing, stay hydrated," Schoening said, adding that residents should be "keeping an eye on pets, checking on the elderly, not leaving anyone, including kids or pets in hot cars."

WILDFIRE DANGERS

The weather service also issued red flag warnings of high fire danger in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. Major wildfires were burning in Colorado and Arizona.

Wildfires scorched more than 6,500 square miles (17,000 square km) of land in 2020, destroying hundreds of Californian homes during a particularly fierce fire season.

The unusually severe late-spring heat wave was the result of a high-pressure ridge that built over southwestern deserts, weather service meteorologists say, and could not be blamed directly on global warming.

"But studies show that as the climate changes and it gets warmer, we will see more of these anomalous events over time," Schoening said.

The brutal heat triggered a surge in electricity demand as residents cranked up air conditioners and fans. Texas and California, the two most populous U.S. states, urged energy conservation.

California's grid operator issued a "Flex Alert" for Thursday evening, telling residents to turn off unneeded appliances and office equipment between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. and thermostats higher.

California and Texas both imposed rolling blackouts over the last year to avoid a power system collapse, California due to the heat in August 2020 and Texas in February 2021 after a deep freeze that left millions without heat.

Much of the U.S. Southwest is also in the grip of a drought that has cut hydropower supplies, leaving rivers running dry and prompting ranchers to sell livestock.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates most of the state's power system, projected demand would break the June record, set on Monday, in the coming days.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico, Aishwarya Nair in Bangalore and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Leslie Adler)

-reuters-

Get vaccinated, win cash as California offers $116.5 million in prizes

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California will offer $116.5 million in cash and gift cards to residents who get COVID-19 vaccinations before June 15, the latest — and most lucrative — incentive by U.S. states desperate to persuade laggards and vaccine-skeptics to get the injection.

The move by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is part of an effort to boost vaccinations as the state prepares to fully reopen its economy on June 15. Ten Californians who become inoculated before that date stand to win lottery-style prizes of $1.5 million apiece, while another 30 people will each win $50,000.

Beginning Thursday, the first two million Californians to become vaccinated will each win $50 gift cards for cash or groceries, the state said.

"Some Californians weren't ready to get their COVID-19 vaccine on day one, and that's OK," said Dr. Tomas Aragon, director of the California Department of Public Health. "This program is designed to encourage those who need extra support to get vaccinated and help keep California safe."

The incentives are being offered as Newsom is fighting off a recall campaign that has become a cause celebre among Republicans nationwide. It is one of many ways that Newsom plans to spend an unprecedented state budget surplus.

"Getting every eligible Californian vaccinated is how we bring our state roaring back from this pandemic," Newsom said.

Across the United States, states and private organizations have offered incentives to persuade people to become inoculated against COVID-19, which has killed nearly 3.7 people worldwide.

The incentives range from free baseball tickets and beer, to college scholarships and cash.

On Wednesday, Ohio awarded $1 million to Abbigail Bugenske, a Silverton woman who entered the state's Vax-a-Million drawing. Joseph Costello, a high school student from Inglewood, won a full-ride scholarship, including tuition, books and room and board at an Ohio public university or college. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

-reuters-

Disneyland's Avengers area to open in June with Spider-Man, shawarma

LOS ANGELES -- A new Avengers-themed area featuring a Spider-Man ride, roaming superheroes and a shawarma food cart will open at Walt Disney Co’s Disneyland Resort in California on June 4, the head of the company’s parks division said on Thursday.

The debut will come weeks after the resort in Anaheim, about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles, begins welcoming back guests for the first time in a year starting on April 30.

Disneyland, the original Disney theme park, and neighboring California Adventure were closed in March 2020 to help prevent spread of the novel coronavirus. The shutdown thwarted plans to open the Avengers Campus in July 2020.

Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney parks, experiences and products, announced the new opening date as he offered a glimpse of the Avengers attractions during a pre-taped video shown to reporters.

In a new Spider-Man ride called “Web Slingers,” which combines physical and virtual environments, guests will team with Spidey to capture out-of-control Spider-Bots.

“You will swear Peter Parker’s right there,” said Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, referring to Spider-Man’s alter ego.

A swinging Spider-Man character also will perform acrobatics above the park’s rooftops. The character is a “stuntronic” robot designed to perform somersaults while flying 60 feet in the air, Disney said.

Black Panther, Black Widow, Doctor Strange, Iron Man also will found in the park, as well as a Quinjet, an advanced aircraft used by the Avengers.

“There’s only one place you can see one of our Quinjets,” Feige said. “It’s either in the movie or it’s here.”

Food options will include a cart offering shawarma, a nod to a scene at the end of the 2012 “Avengers” movie when various superheroes ate the Middle Eastern dish together after saving the world.

Visitors to Disneyland will need advance reservations and must follow COVID-19 safety precautions including wearing masks and social distancing.

-reuters-

Four dead, 2 wounded, including suspect, in shooting near Los Angeles

ORANGE, California - Four people were killed, one of them a child, in a shooting on Wednesday at an office building in suburban Los Angeles before the suspect, wounded in an exchange of gunfire with police, was taken into custody, police reported.

The bloodshed in the city of Orange, about 30 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, marked the third deadly mass shooting in the United States in less than a month. Authorities offered no explanation as to a possible motive.

Orange Police Department Lieutenant Jennifer Amat told reporters that police officers arrived on the scene at about 5:30 p.m. local time as shots were being fired and "engaged with the suspect."

She said three adults and one child were found shot dead, and two other people struck by gunfire, including the shooter, were transported to area hospitals.

Audio of Amat's on-scene briefing with reporters was played for Reuters afterward by the video news service OnScene.TV. The police department said in a message posted to its Facebook page that the situation had since been "stabilized" with no further threat to the public.

The shooting erupted in a two-story office building that opens onto an inner courtyard ringed by several businesses. The larger neighborhood consists of homes, apartments and other commercial properties.

Officials had no further details of the incident immediately available.

The shooting came a little more than two weeks after eight people were shot to death by a gunman who went on a rampage at three Atlanta-area day spas on March 16. Ten people were killed on March 22 when a man opened fire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado. The lone suspects in both those shootings were arrested.

Reacting on Twitter to Wednesday's events in Orange, California Governor Gavin Newsom called the latest bloodshed "horrifying and heartbreaking." 

-reuters-

Disneyland to become mass vaccination site in Orange County, California Reuters

ORANGE COUNTY, California - Walt Disney Co's Disneyland, which has remained closed since March, will become the first large site to provide COVID-19 vaccinations in Orange County, California, government officials announced late on Monday.

Disneyland will be the first Super Point-of-Dispensing (POD) sites in the county and become operational later this week, the district officials said in a statement.

"The Disneyland Resort, the largest employer in the heart of Orange County, has stepped up to host the county's first Super POD site – undertaking a monumental task in our vaccination distribution process," said acting chairman Andrew Do, Orange County Supervisor, representing the First District.

The county will announce additional Super POD sites as agreements are finalized.

"Disneyland Resort is proud to help support Orange County and the City of Anaheim with the use of our property, and we are grateful for all of their efforts to combat COVID-19," Pamela Hymel, chief medical officer of Disney Parks, said in an emailed statement.

-reuters-

Apple temporarily shuts California stores in virus surge, some in UK after new curbs

Apple Inc has temporarily shut all of its 53 stores in California because of a coronavirus outbreak and 16 stores in the United Kingdom following restrictions introduced by the government in London, a spokesman said on Saturday.

The company said on Friday it was temporarily shutting some stores in California following a surge in COVID-19 cases, sending the iPhone maker's shares down in trading after the bell. That announcement covered at least 12 stores.

"Due to current COVID-19 conditions in some of the communities we serve, we are temporarily closing stores in these areas. We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to having our teams and customers back as soon as possible," the spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Customers would still be able to pick up existing orders for the next few days, the spokesman said. The statement did not mention when Apple expects the stores to reopen.

Coronavirus cases are increasing in the United States and the United Kingdom, with the U.S. having had over 17.4 million infections and about 314,000 deaths.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday imposed an effective lockdown on over 16 million people in England and reversed plans to ease curbs over Christmas. The UK's other nations, whose response to the pandemic differs from that of England at times, also took action.

Johnson said London and southeast England would now be placed in a new Tier 4 level of lockdown and people in those areas will be required to stay at home except for essential reasons such as work. Non-essential retail will close, as will indoor leisure and entertainment. 

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Grant McCool)

-reuters-

Donated heart survives helicopter crash in California

LOS ANGELES - Talk about a brave heart -- a donated heart was alive and pumping Monday after surviving the crash of the helicopter transporting the organ to a California hospital and then falling out of the hands of a medical worker who retrieved it.

Footage of the incident on Friday showed the aircraft lying on its side on the roof of the University of Southern California's Keck Hospital in east Los Angeles.

Video footage showed fire crews retrieving the organ and handing it over to a medical worker in hospital scrubs.

The worker then trips on a metal plate and falls over as another hospital employee rushes to pick up the precious package.

A hospital spokesperson told AFP that the organ was successfully transplanted on Friday, and the patient was doing well.

"The heart itself was fine after being dropped," the spokesperson said.

Officials said all three people on board the aircraft were doing well, although the pilot had suffered minor injuries.

The aircraft had flown from a hospital in southern California with the donor heart for a transplant and crashed for unknown reasons on the USC hospital helipad.

Agence France-Presse

Changing weather prompts more fire fears in California

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An unwelcome change in the weather, with higher winds, temperatures and lightning that threatens to spark new wildfires was coming Sunday to parched Northern California, where firefighters have for nearly a week battled three huge “complexes” of fires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to flee.

Firefighters made slow but hopeful progress in battling the blazes on Saturday, aided by good weather but hampered by smoky skies that grounded water-dropping aircraft for some of the day. Reinforcements arrived to bolster overwhelmed crews, and evacuation orders were lifted in some areas.

But the changing weather brought fears of new fires overnight and warnings from state and local officials for residents in threatened areas to prepare to flee at any moment.

“There’s not a feeling of pure optimism, but a feeling of resolve, a feeling of we have resources backing us up,” Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore said.

Since Aug. 15, state fire officials said more than 12,000 lightning strikes across the state have ignited more than 500 wildfires. Of those, about two dozen major fires were attracting most of the state’s resources. Most of the damage was caused by three clusters of fire “complexes” that were ravaging forest and rural areas in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. They have burned 1,120 square miles (2,900 square kilometers).

Among the casualties were ancient redwood trees at California’s oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods, plus the park’s headquarters and campgrounds. Smoke from the fires made the region’s air quality dangerous, forcing people to stay inside.

Overall, the fires have killed five people, torched nearly 700 homes and other structures and forced tens of thousands from their houses.

“Tuesday night when I went to bed I had a beautiful home on a beautiful ranch,” said 81-year-old Hank Hanson of Vacaville. “By Wednesday night, I have nothing but a bunch of ashes.”

The changing weather brought good news for some communities, including Boulder Creek, an old logging community of about 5,000 people in the Santa Cruz mountains. Fire officials said they expected the blaze to reach the community, but they took advantage of recent good weather to try to “herd” flames around the town.

The storms predicted for Sunday were expected to aid those efforts by changing the direction of the wind.

“As bad as that weather prediction is overall for certain parts of this fire, it actually is going to help us move it away from those certain communities,” said Chief Mark Brunton, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state’s firefighting agency.

Responding to the emergency, President Donald Trump issued on Saturday a major disaster declaration to provide federal assistance. Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that the declaration will also help people in counties affected by the fires with crisis counseling, housing and other social services.

Fire officials, meanwhile, struggled to get enough resources to fight the two largest cluster of fires around the San Francisco Bay area that had grown to become the second-largest and third-largest fires in state history by size.

The fire burning in California’s wine country, north of the San Francisco Bay, had only 1,400 firefighters assigned to battle the blaze. By comparison, the state had 5,000 firefighters assigned to the Mendocino Complex in 2018, which still holds the record as the largest fire in state history — for now.

“All of our resources remain stretched to capacity that we have not seen in recent history,” said Shana Jones, the chief for CalFire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit.

Underscoring the danger the fires pose for firefighters, the Sonoma County sheriff’s office released dramatic video of the helicopter rescue Friday night of two firefighters trapped on a ridge line at Point Reyes National Seashore. They were hoisted to safety as flames advanced.

“Had it not been for that helicopter, those firefighters would certainly have perished,” Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said.

Associated Press

'It's emotional whiplash’: California is once again at the center of the virus crisis

(Closing a Second Time)

LOS ANGELES — When everything shut down in March as the coronavirus took off in California, Canter’s Deli, a mainstay in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, laid off dozens of employees.

A few months later, it called them back to work. By then, the state appeared to have emerged from the initial virus crisis in much better shape than other parts of the country.

But now California’s caseload is exploding, with rising deaths and hospitalizations. As quickly as things had opened up, they have shut down again.

"To have to call those people up so many times, starting March 15, to say, ‘I’m sorry, we have to lay you off, we have to furlough you,’” said Jacqueline Canter, 59, among the third generation of her family to run the restaurant. “Then call them back: ‘Oh, guess what, we’re opening again, come back.’ Then call them back: ‘Guess what, you don’t have a job anymore.’ It’s just a devastating experience for me.

“It’s an emotional roller coaster,” she added. “It’s emotional whiplash.”

If America is now experiencing a sense of national déjà vu, with coronavirus deaths rising and hospitalizations at a level similar to the spring peak, that feeling is perhaps nowhere more intense than in California.

In the Northeast, the crisis that was so acute this spring in places like New York and Connecticut has now abated and shifted to the Sun Belt, where states like Texas and Florida had managed at first to escape the worst of the virus. But California is now in the unwelcome position of having found itself at the center of the pandemic twice over.

California was the first state to issue a stay-at-home order this spring, helping to control an early outbreak. But after a reopening that some health officials warned was too fast, cases surged, leading to a new statewide mask mandate and the closure of bars and indoor dining again. With more than 420,000 known cases, California has surpassed New York to have the most recorded cases of any state, and it set a single-day record Wednesday with more than 12,100 new cases and 155 new deaths.

And as California struggles once again to contain the virus, the multitude of challenges playing out across America has collided in every corner of the state, as if it were a microcosm of the country itself.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is wrestling with how to convey a consistent message while dealing with local officials who have resisted both new shutdowns and enforcing a mandatory mask order. Some rural areas of the state remain relatively unscathed with low case counts, while cases in Los Angeles are skyrocketing. The city’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, has warned that a new stay-at-home order could come down in the coming days.

In many parts of San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, people do not leave home without a mask. In Huntington Beach and across Orange County, residents have openly defied mask orders and protested against them.

In Los Angeles and San Diego, classrooms will be empty this fall, after public school officials decided they were unwilling to risk in-person instruction. But in Orange County, a recommendation by the Board of Education that children return to school without masks became political fodder for debate, even as the governor announced that most California schools would not be able to teach in person.

The contradictions span the state, creating a sense of regional dissonance. In Imperial County, on the southern border with Mexico, hospitals have been so overwhelmed with virus cases that patients have had to be airlifted elsewhere. But in the northernmost tip, the virus has yet to hit Modoc County, an agricultural community of around 9,000, where there were zero known cases as of Thursday.

“It’s a small town,” said Cynthia Peña, owner of Java Doc, a coffee shop in Alturas, California, where seasonal fires were the most pressing issue for local officials. “Everyone is pretty much social distancing; we already know a cow’s length.” Still, she has shut down her dining room and asked her employees to wear masks when customers arrive at the drive-thru window.

In recent weeks, Newsom has walked a fine line between justifying the state’s reopening and imploring Californians to stay home and refrain from gathering. He has pleaded with residents to wear masks and chided them for allowing their children to hug their cousins or grandparents.

He has repeatedly pointed out that conditions across a huge state are varied, saying, “None of us live in the aggregate; it’s a very different picture you can paint depending on where you live in the state.”

It is in some ways California’s sprawling nature, with 40 million residents spread across urban downtowns and rural areas, liberal strongholds and conservative alcoves, that has aggravated the feeling of back and forth. What applies in one area may not feel necessary in another, even as residents live under statewide orders. And the sense of confusion is often made worse by conflicting political messages from local leaders, the governor and the White House.

“It’s very hard to go backwards,” said Jonathan Fielding, a professor of health policy and management at UCLA and former public health director for Los Angeles County, who worried that a lack of consistent messaging had allowed many Californians to choose which message they wanted to hear at various points in the pandemic.

“When people have been isolated and in some cases lost a job and are hearing all of these different things, what is the message?” he said. “What is the message when you are hearing, basically, a cacophony?”

In Los Angeles — which has seen the most cases in California and where hospitals are filling up — parts of the city feel under siege, and in other areas, there is little palpable sense of the severity of the situation. Unlike in New York City during the height of the outbreak, most Angelenos have not had to absorb the piercing wail of ambulance sirens at all hours, a sound that came to define the pandemic there.

California’s numbers are in part a reflection of its vast population, about double that of New York state, and testing is far more available now than in the spring. Antibody tests suggest that far more people than previously reported were infected in New York City at its peak. But because Los Angeles is so less dense than New York City, there are parts of Los Angeles where the reality of the virus at this stage of the pandemic can go unnoticed.

“It feels as normal as it always did,” said Michael Lee, the owner of a hair salon, Bang Bang LA, in the Los Feliz neighborhood.

For Lee, the past several months have been turbulent in the extreme. He was set to open his business just as the pandemic gained a hold in the country, forcing shutdowns.

“We opened March 19 and got shut down March 20,” he said.

Lee, who rents space to other hair stylists, did not collect any rent for the first months of the shutdown. Now he is charging tenants just 35% of their rent “just to keep the doors open for when we can go back to work.”

He was allowed to open for about five weeks beginning in early June, but many of his clients stayed away, saying they feared another coronavirus wave. “They were right, I guess,” he said.

The salon shut down again last week, and Lee has been spending his time cleaning it, touching up the paint on the walls and researching business loans to help him stay afloat. “I’ve just been watching the numbers every day, hoping to see them start dropping,” he said.

For essential workers, many of whom are people of color who have faced the risk of the virus on a daily basis for months, the latest upticks were especially worrisome.

“It’s scary,” said Christina Lockyer-White, a nursing assistant at a nursing home in Kern County, who watched as dozens of patients and fellow employees fell ill in April. “Nobody should have to go through or see what I experienced.”

As cases rise, Lockyer-White, who said she tested negative this spring, once again worries about contracting the virus and taking it home to her son. “You always wonder if a second wave can come back, because you hear that they can,” Lockyer-White said Thursday during a break from a shift at the nursing home. “It’s always, make sure you don’t let your guard down.”


-The New York Times Company-

The Latest: California tops New York for most virus cases

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s confirmed coronavirus cases have topped 409,000, surpassing New York for most in the nation.

Johns Hopkins University data shows California has about 1,200 more cases than New York.

However, New York’s 32,520 confirmed deaths outnumber California’s tally of nearly 8,000 deaths.

California is by far the most populous U.S. state, at nearly 40 million people, while New York has about 19.5 million.

Scientists say reported coronavirus cases vastly underestimate the true number of infections because of the small number of tests.

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study says COVID-19 cases were more than 10 times higher than reported in most U.S. regions from late March to early May. It’s based on COVID-19 antibody tests performed on routine blood samples in 16,000 people in 10 U.S. regions that showed many with the virus antibody.

(The item has been corrected to show New York state has 32,520 confirmed deaths, according to a tally be Johns Hopkins University.)

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— Brazil president still tests positive for virus

— Trump says virus in US will get worse before it gets better

— Crisis hits Lebanon’s hospitals, among the best in Mideast

— Silent spread of virus keeps scientists grasping for clues

— California’s confirmed coronavirus cases have topped 409,000, surpassing New York for most in the nation. However, California has nearly 8,000 deaths compared to New York’s 32,000.

— With the coronavirus rebounding in parts of Spain, it appears Catalonia and other regions have not adequately prepared to trace new infections in what was supposed to be an early detection system to prevent a new cascade of cases.

— More than one in five people in Delhi have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a study, indicating that most cases in the Indian capital region have gone undetected.

 Associated Press

Body found in US lake where 'Glee' actress went missing

Rescuers on Monday found a body at the California lake where "Glee" star Naya Rivera went missing last week.

The Ventura County Sheriff's office said "recovery is in progress" of the unidentified body, after a sixth day of searching for the US actress began again at first light.

Rivera, 33, is believed to have accidentally drowned in Lake Piru after renting a boat at the camping and recreational hotspot with her four-year-old son, authorities said last week.

She vanished on Wednesday afternoon, and a massive search involving divers, patrol boats and helicopters was launched after her son was spotted drifting alone in a boat on the lake.

"Investigators believe Rivera drowned in what appears to be a tragic accident," the sheriff's office said last week.

"Rivera's son told investigators that he and his mother had been swimming in the lake, and he got back in the boat, but Rivera did not," a statement said.

The lake, an hour's drive northwest of Los Angeles, has been closed to the public since, with around 100 personnel, including the US Coast Guard and rescuers from neighboring counties, joining the search.

With less than one foot (30 centimeters) of visibility underwater in daylight, the recovery operation has been "a very slow process" even with use of sonar equipment, officials said.

A news conference is scheduled for Monday afternoon. 

Rivera was best known for her role as high school cheerleader Santana Lopez in "Glee."

She starred for six seasons in the wildly popular musical television series set in a US high school that ended in 2015.

The "Glee" cast has been struck by tragedy before.

Actor Mark Salling took his own life in 2018, weeks before being sentenced for possession of child pornography.

Canadian castmate Cory Monteith died in July 2013 of an overdose of drugs and alcohol.

Agence France-Presse

Los Angeles records 'alarming' surge in COVID-19 cases to more than 100,000

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County recorded an "alarming" one-day spike of nearly 3,000 new COVID-19 infections on Monday, taking its total to more than 100,000 cases, public health officials said, warning that hospitals could soon be overwhelmed.

Los Angeles and neighboring counties have become a new epicenter in the pandemic as cases and hospitalizations have surged there despite California Governor Gavin Newsom's strict order last week requiring masks in nearly all public spaces.

"The alarming increases in cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations signals that we, as a community, need to take immediate action to slow the spread of COVID-19," Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said in a statement announcing the sharp upswing.

"Otherwise, we are quickly moving toward overwhelming our healthcare system and seeing even more devastating illness and death," Ferrer said.

The county reported a single-day record of 2,903 new cases.

California, which on Sunday ordered bars in Los Angeles and six other counties to close, is among several US states including Florida, Texas and Arizona battling a new wave of infections as the nation emerges from weeks of clamp-downs on residents and businesses.

Texas and Florida ordered the closure of all their recently reopened bars on Friday.

Democrats leading the biggest metropolitan areas in Texas on Monday renewed calls for Governor Greg Abbott to give them the authority to make decisions on mandatory mask wearing and social distancing to protect their hard-hit populations.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner asked Abbott to give local leaders back the powers they had in April, until an executive order from the governor nixed it: their ability to fine people who do not follow rules mandating masks and social distancing.

NEW JERSEY, KANSAS TAKE NEW STEPS

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said on Monday that indoor dining will no longer resume on Thursday in the state as planned and would be postponed indefinitely.

In Kansas, Governor Laura Kelly imposed a statewide mandate requiring residents to wear masks in public spaces, a move she said was necessary to avoid another shutdown.

Beaches in Florida's Broward County and Palm Beach County will not open for the July 3-5 holiday weekend, officials said on Sunday, a blow to residents hoping to celebrate Independence Day there on Saturday. Miami-Dade County had already announced beach closures for the holiday weekend.

AMC, the largest US movie theater chain, on Monday said it was pushing back the reopening of its theaters to July 30 from July 15.

Arizona and Georgia were among states reporting record new cases this week. Last week, a total of 15 US states reported records, according to a Reuters tally.

In June, 22 US states reported record increases in new cases, often multiple times, including Alaska, Arkansas, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon and Utah.

Face coverings have become a political issue, with some conservative politicians and many supporters of US President Donald Trump arguing that such mandates are unconstitutional.

The city of Jacksonville, Florida, venue for part of the Republican nominating convention in August, said on Twitter it would be requiring masks for all public locations starting later on Monday.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Monday that Trump "has no problem with masks and to do whatever your local jurisdiction requests."

US Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday pressed Americans to adopt face masks during a trip to Texas and wore one himself, a sharp turnaround for the administration. Other Republican politicians in hard-hit states also are now calling for masks.

The New York Times reported on Monday that 43 percent of US deaths from COVID-19 were linked to nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The paper cited its own tracking database.

-reuters-

California to ease coronavirus restrictions from Friday

LOS ANGELES - Some retailers in California, including bookstores, flower shops and clothing stores, will be allowed to reopen for business at the end of the week, the state's governor announced on Monday.

"Millions of Californians answered the call to stay home and thanks to them, we are in a position to begin moving into our next stage of modifying our stay at home order," Governor Gavin Newsom said. "But make no mistake -- this virus isn't gone. It's still dangerous and poses a significant public health risk."

His announcement came following protests across the state last week to demand the lifting of restrictions that have kept the majority of Californians at home and crippled the state's economy, one of the largest in the world.

Under the second phase of the reopening process outlined by the governor, some retail stores can open on Friday for pickup only, while manufacturing and logistics businesses will also be able to get back to work.

Newsom said other sectors that fall into this second phase, such as offices and dine-in restaurants, will open at a later date.

The Democratic governor said that some counties can move quickly through Stage 2, but they must first prove that they meet the state's readiness criteria for hospital beds, testing kits and contact tracing.

Other counties in the Bay Area, which were the first in the country to order lockdowns and which have experienced a high rate of infection, will likely start lifting restrictions at a later date, Newsom said.

He said Stage 3 of lifting restrictions would begin in months and include the reopening of hair salons, nail bars, gyms and sports competitions without fans. The final stage would amount to the lifting of all restrictions and allow for the opening of movie theaters and sporting events.

That stage, however, is not expected before a vaccine is discovered and made widely available.

California as of Monday had recorded nearly 55,000 cases of COVID-19 and 2,211 deaths.

Los Angeles County alone has recorded nearly 26,000 cases and 1,229 deaths.

Agence France-Presse

Beach crowds lead California to increase enforcement of coronavirus public health restrictions

SACRAMENTO, California - California will step up enforcement of coronavirus-related public health restrictions after crowds jammed beaches over the weekend, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday.

Newsom's announcement came after local officials in Orange and Ventura Counties allowed access to their beaches even as state parks remained closed, prompting families and groups to head to the ocean on a warm spring weekend.

The crowds put at risk the state's progress in slowing the advance of the novel coronavirus and possibly could delay a possible loosening of restrictions that was just weeks away, said Newsom, a Democrat.

The beach crowds exemplify the tension that officials throughout the United States are dealing with as residents chafe under stay-at-home orders and some states begin to loosen them.


Newsom said he would not direct state police or park rangers to issue citations to individuals who were just out quietly with their children or walking their dogs.

"I don’t want to be punitive," he said. "They just want to take a rest on the beach and all of a sudden they get a citation - I don’t want to see that. But if there are people thumbing their nose and taking a risk… I think we may have to do a little bit more."

The two counties that opened their beaches are reconsidering their plans after people thronged their shoreline spots, prompting criticism from public health authorities, Newsom said.

Two additional states, Nevada and Colorado, have joined with California, Oregon and Washington to develop a Western regional plan for re-opening the troubled economy and allowing residents to begin at least some more typical social interactions.

But Newsom warned that fatalities and new cases were still ongoing in California, where 45 people died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 1,300 additional cases were diagnosed.

"The virus is as transmissible as it’s ever been," Newsom said. "It doesn’t take the weekend off. It doesn’t take any time off. It is ubiquitous, it is invisible and it remains deadly." (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Sandra Maler and Dan Grebler)

-reuters-

Fil-Am students fall victim to 'Zoombombing'

SAN DIEGO, California - A group of Filipino-American students became the target of Zoombombers while they were holding a virtual meeting using Zoom technology amid the pandemic.

The San Diego State University’s Andres Bonifacio Samahan Club was holding a candidate meeting to elect its officers when a group of Zoombombers crashed the meeting and unleashed profanities and racial slurs.

“We sit silent not only to prevent any reaction but out some mix of shock, anger, confusion, and maybe most of all fear, fear that we were being violated and degraded in our homes and I hope no one else experiences that," said Julian Natividad.

In an Instagram message to fellow students, Natividad said many of the students were traumatized by the experience.

Last month, The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council began tracking hate crimes and incidents against Asian Americans in California, and in the first week since its launch, some 1,100 cases have been reported.

With this virtual attack, AB Samahan said it will take a stand.

"We will press on, AB Samahan will not be let down because we will not be put down. We will no longer be the silent majority," it said.

With the “Zoombombing” phenomenon on the rise, Zoom has encouraged users to take extra security steps when meeting. In the meantime, SDSU has also issued a statement standing in solidarity with the AB Samahan Club.

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Packed California beaches prompt stricter virus measures

LOS ANGELES - Governor Gavin Newsom tightened California's coronavirus lockdown Monday, shutting parking lots at beaches and parks in the most populous US state after tens of thousands flouted social distancing rules over the weekend.

The state is already under orders to stay home, but images of record crowds flocking to beaches such as Malibu and Santa Monica went viral on Sunday.

"I had a little anxiety, as all of you did, watching the news of all those folks and crowds in our parks, out there on the beautiful California coast," said Newsom.

"We're going to shut down all state parking lots" immediately, he added, saying "we can't see what we saw over the weekend happen again." 

California, one of the worst-hit US states, has more than 1,700 confirmed cases, including at least 27 deaths.

Last week Newsom ordered all residents to stay home, barring essential activities, and to maintain social distancing.

But the order will likely not be enforced by police, Newsom said, expressing hope that people would self-regulate.

"We need to help you help yourself, a little bit more, those folks that were making their way out" at the weekend, Newsom said Monday, calling the new measure a "soft closure."

"To recognize when you're on a single-track trail out in our beautiful wilderness, that single track means going up the mountain, and down the mountain -- which means it's almost impossible to socially distance.

"When you're out there and you can't even find parking at a beach, it suggests you're not going to practice social distancing, and it may suggest you may want to find a new location."

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti loosened restrictions on restaurants delivering alcohol to people in their homes. Other US jurisdictions have made similar moves.

"This will not only be something nice for the people of LA, but good for those businesses to keep them alive, so that when this crisis is over your favorite neighborhood watering holes and restaurant will still, we hope, be there," he said.

Governor Newsom also praised entrepreneur Elon Musk for delivering 1,000 new ventilators to Los Angeles from where they will be distributed to hospitals, with fears that US medical facilities will not have enough of the crucial machines to cope with a surge of people sick with the COVID-19 illness.

amz/it

Agence France-Presse

Trump says US on top as outbreak shuts largest cities

New York and Illinois followed California Friday in locking down to stem the coronavirus pandemic as President Donald Trump declared the United States was already "winning" the war despite a rapid rise in confirmed cases and deaths.

The move effectively seals off America's largest cities -- New York, Los Angeles and Chicago -- with New Jersey also preparing to follow and Connecticut shutting.

But Trump insisted there was no need for a national lockdown, arguing that other parts of the US weren't hurting as much as its most populous states.

Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered non-essential businesses to close and banned gatherings in New York state, a day after his counterpart Gavin Newsom told California's 40 million residents to stay home.

"We're all in quarantine now," Cuomo told reporters, warning of civil fines and mandatory closures for anyone violating the order, which takes effect on Sunday evening.

The escalation came as COVID-19-linked deaths in the US rose to 216 -- more than doubling in three days -- with more than 16,600 confirmed infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Despite the surge, Trump said the world's number one power was "winning" and "going to win this war."

"Those are really two hotbeds. Those are probably the two hottest of them all in terms of hotspots," Trump told the daily White House news conference, adding that states in the American midwest were not registering as many confirmed cases.

"So no, we're working with the governors and I don't think we'll ever find that necessary," he added.

But shortly afterwards Illinois Governor J.B Pritzker announced an immediate stay-at-home order for the state "to avoid the loss of potentially tens of thousands of lives."

"The only strategy available to us to limit the increase in cases... is to mitigate the spread of coronavirus in the most robust manner possible," he said.

The order is in place from Saturday evening until April 7, Pritzker added.

The head of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Todd Semonite, said the agency was working on refitting more than 10,000 hotel and dormitory rooms in New York into temporary hospitals to alleviate the burden on health centers.

"We would like to think we can do this in three or four weeks and try to go as fast as we can," he said.

The number of confirmed infections in New York state jumped past 7,000 Friday, largely because of an increase in testing, Cuomo said, as he announced he would pass an executive order mandating that only essential businesses can remain open from late Sunday.

He stressed that essential services included grocery stores, pharmacies and food delivery.

Cuomo said that under "Matilda's Law," named after his mother, "non-essential gatherings of individuals of any size" were canceled.

[BOLD] 'Strong steps'

He ordered residents to exercise alone and not hold group activities outside, such as basketball.

He said citizens should avoid public transport "unless urgent and absolutely necessary."

"New York state (is) on pause," he said.

"These actions will cause disruption. They will cause much unhappiness. I understand that," Cuomo added.

He dismissed references to the measures as "shelter-in-place," which they have been called in California, but the rules effectively amount to the same thing.

California's statewide directive, which went into force Thursday evening, also instructs residents to remain at home.

It allows gas stations, pharmacies, banks and laundry services to remain open while restaurants can still provide take-out and delivery.

"They are taking strong steps. I applaud them," Trump said, referring to Cuomo and Newsom.

Trump also announced Friday that the US and Mexico have agreed to restrict non-essential travel across their border beginning on Saturday.

He said the move, similar to one already announced with northern neighbor Canada, was necessary to prevent the "spread of the infection to our border agents, migrants, and to the public at large."

On Capitol Hill, US senators began critical negotiations over a $1 trillion emergency stimulus package to help Americans ravaged by the coronavirus.

The version unveiled late Thursday includes one-time "recovery rebates" of up to $1,200 for adults earning under $99,000 annually, and hundreds of billions of dollars in loan guarantees to industries hard hit by the crises including airlines and small businesses.

Wall Street stocks finished a volatile session much lower Friday, with the Dow down 4.6 percent, bringing the market's worst week since 2008 to a grim conclusion.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Virus-hit cruise ship passengers face wait in California port

OAKLAND — Passengers waiting to disembark from a coronavirus-hit cruise ship in California faced frustrating delays Tuesday, despite US President Donald Trump saying the operation was going "incredibly well."

The Grand Princess arrived at a sealed-off wharf at the port of Oakland in San Francisco Bay on Monday after days stranded at sea with 21 confirmed infections on board.

California Governor Gavin Newsom admitted the start of the operation had been slow, with just 676 people taken ashore by early Tuesday afternoon from roughly 2,400 passengers.

"We're going to need to see an increase in those processing in order to turn this ship around," he told a news conference. "We don't want to see it here for more than a week."

Trump earlier told a White House meeting that the "big ship that came in yesterday" was "going along incredibly well."

Health Secretary Alex Azar said it was "a very complex operation" but "progressing well," with all Californian residents expected to leave the ship Tuesday.

Two people infected with the virus were among those immediately taken for medical care in ambulances, overseen by emergency workers equipped with gowns, gloves, respirators and face shields.

After an overnight pause, more masked passengers were escorted in small groups from the Grand Princess to ambulances and waiting buses Tuesday.

"The captain said they hope to have us all off by tomorrow night," passenger Carolyn Wright, a 63-year-old from New Mexico, told AFP.

"We are getting really frustrated that they still have not told us where our ultimate destination will be," she added.

Princess Cruises, the operator, said the evacuation would be a "multiple day process."

'ISOLATE'

US residents leaving the ship were to be quarantined for 14 days at military bases in California, Texas and Georgia.

But doubts emerged after Nevada unveiled its own plan to bring all 49 of its passengers -- who do not have symptoms -- directly to the state for quarantine at their homes.

"We have received confirmation from the federal government accepting all the conditions" of the plan, the Nevada governor's office said in a statement.

Passengers who were taken to hospital but found to be stable will be quarantined in hotels and motels throughout California, Newsom said.

Foreign passengers were being flown to their home countries.

Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said 228 Canadians were repatriated and would be quarantined for 2 weeks after landing at the Trenton air force base.

The 19 crew members who tested positive for coronavirus did not have symptoms and remained on the ship Tuesday, in isolation in their cabins, Princess Cruises said.

Newsom said the original plan to quarantine all crew on the ship once it leaves Oakland was being reconsidered. Some members of the crew -- which is disproportionately Filipino -- could instead be repatriated, he said.

A Florida couple travelling on the Grand Princess filed a $1 million lawsuit against the ship's operator alleging negligence.

Princess Cruises had "exposed plaintiffs to actual risk of immediate physical injury," a copy of the complaint filed at a Los Angeles court Monday said.

Newsom said it was now "incumbent upon seniors and those with any medical conditions, not to go on cruise ships, and to begin to socially isolate themselves from larger crowds."

Some 28 people have died of the coronavirus in the US, with almost 1,000 cases reported according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

Agence France-Presse

California confirms second US coronavirus case of unknown origin

LOS ANGELES, United States - California health officials on Friday confirmed the second case in the United States of the new coronavirus believed to have been transmitted to a person who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill.

"This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission but the extent is still not clear," said Sara Cody, director of public health for Santa Clara County, near San Francisco.

"What we know now is that the virus is here, present at some level, but we still don't know to what degree," she added.

The patient in the second case of community spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 is an adult woman with chronic health issues. She is being treated at a local hospital.

Cody said the woman's doctor had reached out to health officials on Wednesday evening, concerned she may have contracted the virus.

Authorities have identified dozens of people the woman had come in contact with and they were quarantined in their homes.

"An important priority... for us is to conduct public health surveillance to determine the extent of what's happening," Cody said.

The virus has infected at least 80,000 people around the world, with most cases recorded in China, where the outbreak started.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

San Francisco declares emergency over coronavirus

San Francisco declared a local emergency over the coronavirus on Tuesday, despite having no cases, as US officials urged Americans to prepare for the spread of infections within their communities.

California's fourth-largest city said it made the move to boost its coronavirus preparedness and raise public awareness of risks the virus may spread to the city.

“Although there are still zero confirmed cases in San Francisco residents, the global picture is changing rapidly, and we need to step-up preparedness,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told the United States on Tuesday to prepare for community spread after infections surfaced in several more countries.

The 14 confirmed US cases of coronavirus have been mostly travel related, with only 2 cases of person-to-person spread. There are also 39 cases among Americans evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Tokyo and from Wuhan, China.

source: news.abs-cbn.com