Death toll rising in 38 states; state legislators who opposed vaccine mandates get infected, go to hospital: Latest COVID-19 updates

Forty-four states are reporting rising coronavirus counts, the lowest total in more than a month, but 38 states again reported rising death tolls, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada and Vermont reported lower numbers of new COVID-19 cases in the week ending Monday compared to the week before. Still, Hawaii, Mississippi and Oregon set new case-count records again Monday amid the surge driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

With so much data indicating the pandemic is far from over, Biden administration health officials are expected to recommend COVID-19 booster shots for all Americans who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, regardless of age, eight months after they received the second shot, a source familiar with the plans confirmed to USA TODAY.

Booster shots will begin as early as mid-to-late September once the FDA formally approves vaccines.

Also in the news:

►Alabama’s intensive care units are near capacity amid the state’s surge in COVID-19 cases. The head of the Alabama Hospital Association, Dr. Don Williamson, calls the situation "the greatest demand on the ICU system we’ve ever had.”

►Moderna's COVID shot became the second coronavirus vaccine approved in Britain for use in children ages 12 to 17, after Pfizer's.

►Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke, who openly opposed COVID vaccines, is on a ventilator in a Wisconsin hospital with the coronavirus.

►Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said large indoor venues in cities like Las Vegas and Reno will be allowed to opt out of the state’s mask requirements if they verify their guests are vaccinated.

►Hong Kong will tighten entry restrictions for travelers arriving from the United States and 15 other countries beginning Friday, extending the quarantine period to 21 days.

📈 Today's numbers: The U.S. has had more than 36.9 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 622,600 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 208 million cases and 4.37 million deaths. More than 168.6 million Americans — 50.8% of the population — have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

📘 What we're reading: Some who got the J&J vaccine seek mRNA boosters. Is it safe to mix? Read more.

Keep refreshing this page for the latest news. Want more? Sign up for USA TODAY's Coronavirus Watch newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox and join our Facebook group.

State lawmakers who rejected vaccine, mask mandates test positive, go to hospital

Two Republican state legislators who opposed mask and vaccine mandates have received hospital care after contracting the coronavirus.

Wisconsin Sen. Andre Jacque of De Pere said Monday that he and some family members tested positive late last week and he was at a hospital with pneumonia. He did not say whether he had been admitted.

Jacque, who testified Wednesday in the Wisconsin State Capitol without wearing a mask in at least one hearings, has been outspoken in his disdain for vaccine mandates and voted against the governor's mask requirement.

In North Carolina, House member Keith Kidwell of Craven County, who has called vaccine campaigns “manipulation," was hospitalized along with his wife last week after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

In a message that fellow Rep. Larry Pittman read on the House floor Thursday before the hospitalization, Kidwell said, "Just walking to the bathroom is exhausting.”

-- Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Todd Wetherington, New Bern Sun Journal

Florida school districts defy Gov. DeSantis' order, plan on requiring masks

Florida’s largest school district, located in Miami-Dade County, will likely require students to wear face masks when classrooms open next week, following the recommendation of a task force of medical experts and defying Gov. Ron DeSantis’s ban on mandatory masking rules.

The Miami-Dade County School Board is expected to approve the measure on Wednesday. “My mind is pretty made up on the way to move forward,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.

Students in neighboring Broward County will be wearing masks when they return for the fall semester on Wednesday. And in the Tampa area, the Hillsborough County School Board, which has not required masks, scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday to discuss additional measures against COVID-19.

Feds to continue bankrolling emergency response costs

The Biden administration will continue to fully reimburse states for some COVID-19 emergency response costs through the end of the year, USA TODAY has learned. Administration officials will announce the extension during their weekly call with governors, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The covered services include emergency medical care, vaccination operations and housing at-risk populations such as the homeless.

“We're going to continue to ... make decisions like this one, based on their needs,” said Charlie Anderson, the economic and budget policy director for the administration’s COVID-19 response team. “There are a lot of folks on the frontlines doing everything they can, including state governments … And it is critical to continue to be a strong partner in those efforts given what they're dealing with.”

– Maureen Groppe

Infections, deaths linked to western wildfires

Thousands of COVID-19 cases and hundreds of deaths in California, Oregon and Washington state from March to December 2020 may be linked to wildfire smoke, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances.

Researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health used a statistical model to measure the connection between high levels of fine particulate air pollution from wildfires and the number of infections and deaths in 92 counties. Across the three states studied, researchers determined nearly 19,700 cases and 750 deaths were attributable to the fires.

“That small particle is small enough to burrow into the lung in a way that sets it up for any respiratory disease,” said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

– Adrianna Rodriguez

New Zealand under lockdown after one new infection

New Zealand's 5 million people began a strict lockdown Tuesday that will last at least three days after finding one case of coronavirus. Auckland, where the infected man lives, and Coromandel, where he had visited, face at least seven days of lockdown. Schools and almost all workplaces closed. When people leave home, they are encouraged to wear a mask pending a possible mandate that could come as soon as Wednesday. New Zealand has reported just 26 virus deaths since the pandemic began.

"We know that this strategy works, we know that we are a strong team of 5 million, and we know that life will get easier, we just need to keep going," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

Vaccine mandates slated for this week: NYC, New Orleans, San Francisco

New York, the nation's first major city to require at least partial vaccination for indoor activities such as dining and using gyms, began to require proof Tuesday. Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday expanded the list of public venues with the requirement: "If we’re going to stop the delta variant, the time is now,'' he said.

New Orleans's vaccine mandate for all indoor venues and outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people went into effect Monday. San Francisco's full vaccination requirement for indoor activities will start Friday.

New York state and D.C. have both become the latest areas to require vaccinations for medical workers, with both announcing mandates on Monday. Similar moves were announced previously in California and Washington state.

Tennessee governor orders schools to allow mask opt-outs for students

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Monday said he is issuing an executive order requiring schools to allow parents to exempt their children from mask mandates, a decision that follows an outcry from some conservative legislators over districts’ masking policies for students. In a statement late Monday, Nashville's Metro Schools Director Adrienne Battle said the district will continue to require masks for now.

"Universal masking policies, during the pandemic, are a key mitigation strategy to do just that. To allow anyone to opt out of these policies for any reason, other than legitimate medical need, would make them ineffective and would require more students to be quarantined and kept out of the classroom," Battle said.

Public health, politics and education made for an uncomfortable mix in many parts of the country Monday. Confusion reigned in several Texas school districts after the state Supreme Court stopped mask mandates in two of the largest districts before the first day of school in Dallas. An Arizona judge upheld, at least temporarily, a mask mandate in a Phoenix district despite a new state law prohibiting such requirements. One Colorado county posted sheriff’s deputies in schools on the first day of classes as a precaution after parents protested a last-minute mask mandate.

-- Natalie Allison, Nashville Tennessean

Contributing: Mike Stucka, Courtney Subramanian and Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY; Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID vaccine booster to begin September after FDA approval: Updates