Hospital pressure, vaccine plans, hiking boom: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Montgomery: The state prison system, which suspended visitation during the COVID-19 pandemic, is starting a video visitation service to try to reconnect prisoners with their family and friends. The Alabama Department of Corrections said the system is expected to be rolled out to all prisons by early this month. The prison system said inmates will be able to use the video kiosks by appointment. Families and friends can securely send photos to inmates for view via the kiosk after approval by facility staff. The prison system said the program will continue after in-person visitation resumes because some families may find it an easier and more affordable way to visit. The prison system said it is also beginning an electronic messaging service through which friends and family can send emails, cards and photos. Officials said staff will process, print and distribute the messages.

Alaska

Juneau: A group of four nonprofit organizations in the city has been awarded a grant of more than $860,000 to counter homelessness amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Juneau Empire reports the grant from the Alaska Housing Financial Corporation will be shared by the Juneau groups following their joint application to the corporation. The award is part of a federal coronavirus recovery fund emergency solutions grant to help prevent those affected by the pandemic from experiencing homelessness. The Glory Hall, Gastineau Human Services Corporation, Family Promise of Juneau and the Alaska Housing Development will split the $868,230 award. Alaska Housing Financial Corporation spokesperson Stacy Barnes said some of the recipients may be experiencing hardship for the first time. “They may have never received this kind of help before,” Barnes said. “Trying to navigate can be difficult for sure.” While there is a yearly grant to which the organizations normally apply, the federal coronavirus recovery funding is new as the government tries to address the impact of the pandemic, Barnes said.

Arizona

Tucson: The mayor on Monday called for a nighttime curfew to prevent the spread of COVID-19, saying the virus is spreading rapidly, and hospitals in southern Arizona are on the verge of a crisis. Democratic Mayor Regina Romero invited a confrontation with Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who earlier this year issued an executive order barring cities and counties from enacting public health measures more stringent than his own. Romero said she’ll ask the City Council on Tuesday to approve a three-week curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. She said it’s critical to act swiftly to avoid more punishing mandates down the road, such as business closures or a “shelter in place” order. “If we don’t take these types of steps now, we will absolutely end up in a catastrophic place in terms of overwhelming our hospitals,” Romero said during a virtual news conference.

Arkansas

Little Rock: The state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations continued climbing to a new high Monday as officials reported more than 1,100 new coronavirus cases. The Department of Health said the number of people in the hospital due to the illness caused by the coronavirus increased by 33 to 1,063. The state’s confirmed and probable virus cases increased by 1,112 to 157,359. The number of people who died from COVID-19 increased by 32 to 2,502. Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the rise in hospitalizations will continue to strain the health care system and warned that Arkansas will likely see a further surge in cases in the coming weeks. Hutchinson, a Republican, earlier this month ordered bars and restaurants serving alcohol to close by 11 p.m. but has resisted further restrictions on businesses. “Based upon national trends and expert concerns on the holiday season, it does seem that we are in the lull before the storm,” Hutchinson said in a statement.

California

Sacramento: The state has asked hospitals to ramp up their coronavirus testing amid a surge of new cases, urging them to test health care workers at least once per week while testing all new patients before admitting them. California reported 7,787 confirmed coronavirus hospitalizations Monday, with 1,812 of those patients in intensive care units. Statewide, 75% of intensive care beds are filled, and state officials expect to reach capacity by mid-December. “There are simply too many asymptomatic people with COVID, and without robust testing, our hospitals will remain centers for spreading the disease instead of centers of healing as they should be,” said Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, president of the California Nurses Association. Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, said hospitals are concerned about the safety of workers, but “we simply don’t have the testing capability to make this happen.” She said hospitals oppose the requirements not because of how much it would cost but because of the supplies required. “We will burn through the supplies that are available … at a time when we are about to see more COVID-19 patients than we have ever seen before,” she said.

Colorado

Denver: The Democrat-led Legislature plowed ahead Tuesday on special session legislation to provide limited state relief to businesses, students and others affected by the coronavirus pandemic, overcoming Republican objections to the scope of the aid and GOP attempts to limit the Democratic governor’s ability to decree public health orders. The Senate unanimously passed bills to direct $5 million to help residents to pay utility bills; $50 million to assist landlords and tenants; and $100 million to the governor’s office for use in the public health emergency. The bills were immediately taken up by the House. In turn, the House passed legislation offering temporary state sales tax breaks to small businesses; allocating $45 million to sustain or open an estimated 2,600 child care centers; appropriate $50 million to help renters and landlords; and sending $3 million to assist food pantries and food banks. Lawmakers convened Monday for the special session called by Polis and hope to wrap up business Wednesday.

Connecticut

Hartford: The state has no plans at the moment to impose more restrictions on businesses amid rising coronavirus infections and deaths, despite a group of doctors calling for the closure of gyms and a pause on indoor dining to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday. The Democratic governor’s comments came as virus-related deaths in the state topped 5,000 since the pandemic began. During a news conference Monday, Lamont said he is listening to doctors around the state as well as others who advocate for keeping gyms and indoor dining open to prevent economic hardship on business owners. He said he had a scheduled call with doctors Tuesday. But Lamont also said current hospital capacity in Connecticut is better than in other states and did not necessitate new restrictions. And he said field hospitals could be set up quickly.

Delaware

Dover: A school district has returned its students to remote learning after the state’s COVID-19 figures showed the county has met two of three indicators to determine significant community spread of the coronavirus. Remote instruction for Capital School District students in Kent County will be effective until Jan. 4, Interim Superintendent Dr. Sylvia Henderson said in a statement on the district’s website. The county’s rates of new cases and positive coronavirus tests are now in the “red phase” used to determine how schools operate during the pandemic, but closures are not mandated by the state. Gov. John Carney said in a Facebook post Monday that educators doing their part and following public health guidance is “why we’re not seeing spread of COVID-19 in schools – even as we continue to see increasing cases statewide.”

District of Columbia

Washington: Weekend Metrorail service could be cut and 19 stations could be forced to close due to a $494.5 million funding gap, according to a report issued by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority on Monday. The report was part of the agency’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget proposal, WUSA-TV reports. The spread of the coronavirus will continue to heavily impact ridership, leaders said, despite operating costs expected to grow by $93 million “due to contractual obligations, inflation and additional COVID cost increases.” The report projected total ridership to recover to about 34% of what it was before the pandemic. Management proposed $55.9 million in management actions to reduce the funding gap, which could include salary freezes and layoffs. In total, the agency said 2,400 jobs could be eliminated.

Florida

Miami: The new mayor of the state’s most populous county tested positive for the coronavirus Monday, officials said. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced the test result on Twitter. She said her husband, Dr. Robert Cava, was exposed to COVID-19 by a patient last Wednesday. He has also tested positive. “Rob and I are quarantining at home,” Levine Cava wrote. “We both remain in good spirits and have only mild symptoms.” Spokeswoman Rachel Johnson told the Miami Herald that Levine Cava had not been in contact with county employees since Wednesday and planned to participate in Tuesday’s county commission meeting by phone. Levine Cava, 65, assumed office Nov. 17 after being elected earlier in the month. The Democrat had previously served as a county commissioner since 2014. Levine Cava’s predecessor, Congressman-elect Carlos Gimenez, tested positive for coronavirus last week. The Republican is set to assume his new office Jan. 3.

Georgia

Atlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday that he expects vaccinations of health care workers against COVID-19 to begin in the second or third week of December, as nursing home executives appealed to the Republican to keep supporting them financially. Kemp made the remarks in a meeting with leaders of the Georgia Health Care Association, a lobby group for the state’s nursing homes. “I am confident that when a COVID vaccine is authorized, we will be ready to distribute,” Kemp said. Although there has been a dip in positive test results that’s likely related to the holidays, Georgia is still averaging more than 3,000 confirmed and probable coronavirus cases a day. Georgia has recorded nearly 472,000 confirmed and probable cases and nearly 9,500 confirmed and probable deaths, according to the state Public Health Department. School-age children recorded their highest infection rate last week since the state began releasing numbers by age groups, passing the previous summer peak.

Hawaii

Honolulu: A volunteer aid network has raised bail funds for pretrial detainees in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus in the state’s prison system. CoronaCare Hawaii partnered with the Hawaii Community Bail Fund to provide bail for 10 Native Hawaiian detainees from the Oahu Community Correctional Center, KITV-TV reports. The group said the partnership was in honor of Hawaiian Independence Day on Nov. 28. “It’s people helping people in need and contributing to lifting up the community so that we can solve these problems together rather than waiting around to be saved,” Coronacare Hawaii volunteer Kawena Phillips said. CoronaCare organizers said they disagree with how the state Department of Public Safety has handled the pandemic. “It’s infuriating because there are so many ways we can combat this virus with community-focused, community-oriented solutions, and instead, the solution that has been given time and time again is to further criminalize people of color,” Phillips said. Native Hawaiians make up more than 40% of the state’s incarcerated population, the University of Hawaii has reported.

Idaho

Boise: The state has reached an alarming milestone, with health officials reporting that more than 100,000 residents have been infected with the coronavirus. That number reached Sunday is likely an undercount, partly because some infected people experience little or no symptoms and may not seek out testing. One out of every 199 Idaho residents has tested positive for the virus in the past week, according to numbers compiled by Johns Hopkins University. At least 920 have died from COVID-19 so far. Hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19 remain high, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, with 446 patients reported as of Friday. About one-fourth of those patients were being treated in intensive care units. The latest average rate of positive tests in Idaho is 44.35%, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.

Illinois

Springfield: Coronavirus cases shot up again Tuesday to 12,542, the highest in 11 days, and there were 125 deaths, Illinois public health officials reported. After a short-lived downturn that saw new cases fall as low as 6,190 on Monday, the uptick came even before officials predict a new wave of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, induced by a busy Thanksgiving week of cross-state travel and family gatherings. Deaths haven’t slowed in relative comparison, however, although the 125 recorded Tuesday accounted for just the second time in five days fatalities topped 100. Overall, COVID-19 has affected 738,846 and has led to the deaths of 12,403. The number of tests for the virus increased too, to 116,081 in 24 hours after a slowdown associated with the holiday. The number of hospitalizations has dipped, however slightly, in recent days. There were 5,835 in hospital beds Tuesday, with 1,195 in intensive care. The most seriously ill – those needing ventilators to assist breathing – has remained steady however, at 721.

Indiana

Indianapolis: Dozens of schools are struggling to stay open as growing numbers of coronavirus infections and related quarantines exacerbate a preexisting statewide teacher and substitute shortage. As of last Monday, 1,755 schools across the state had reported at least one positive coronavirus test, according to the Indiana State Department of Health’s weekly data update. That brings the statewide total to more than 15,000 students, teachers and staff who have tested positive for the virus. While some schools have elected to close their doors entirely, others are asking teachers to continue with in-person instruction. That often means taking on more classes and duties to compensate for those out sick or in quarantine. In other instances, that has also meant teachers are asked to keep working even after they’ve been exposed to COVID-19.

Iowa

Johnston: The coronavirus infection rate in the state appeared to be showing signs of slowing Tuesday, but the numbers of people hospitalized with illness and dying with COVID-19 remained high, according to public health data. Some of the decline in case positivity could be due to reduced testing around the Thanksgiving holiday. Some hospital officials were bracing for another surge in positive tests and illness linked to family gatherings. Iowa’s seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate declined in the past two weeks but remained third in the nation at 41.24% on Monday, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The average of daily deaths in Iowa has risen over the past two weeks from 20 deaths per day Nov. 16 to 28 deaths per day Monday, Johns Hopkins data showed. Iowa posted 24 deaths Tuesday, raising the state total to 2,427. In November, more than 680 people died from the virus.

Kansas

Belle Plaine: Anticipated staffing shortages amid surging coronavirus cases could hit rural hospitals especially hard because smaller communities have more limited options for finding providers to cover for sick workers, medical providers say. “We are doing what we can to make sure our staff are staying healthy and safe and able to be available to treat the community, but we also have heard that with post-holiday, this could be a challenge,” said Cindy Samuelson, senior vice president for the Kansas Hospital Association. “There is lots of potential for community spread.” About 44% of the state’s hospitals on Monday were anticipating staffing shortages this week with an expected rise in COVID-19 cases following the Thanksgiving holiday, according to the association’s COVID-19 dashboard. Five rural Kansas counties – Rush, Republic, Ellsworth, Rawlins and Kearny – rank in the top 25 counties in the nation with the most new cases per capita in the past 14 days.

Kentucky

Louisville: The state is likely to receive about 38,000 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine by the middle of December, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Monday. Long-term care residents and staff, as well as front-line health care workers at hospitals, will be the first to receive doses, he said. A second round of coronavirus vaccines, manufactured by Moderna, will be made available by the end the year, according to the governor. “A light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter,” said Beshear, a Democrat, as he urged Kentuckians to continue to follow public health guidelines aimed at protecting residents in long-term care. “If we don’t do our part between now and then, there are people in those facilities that will never get to see that vaccine or get the benefit of it.” However, Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, noted that the amount of doses is one-third of what state officials had expected.

Louisiana

New Orleans: The light extravaganza tradition called Celebration in the Oaks that is held yearly in City Park has turned into a drive-thru experience as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Thousands of visitors usually go to the park every holiday season to see the elaborate light show, which features various scenes and characters made out of lights interspersed throughout the park’s trees and landscapes. A scene depicting the retelling of a Cajun Christmas story is a particular favorite of visitors. In recent years, visitors would buy a ticket and walk through a section of the park where the lights are arranged. But this year visitors will buy tickets and drive through the park to see the lights. “During COVID right now, this is a safe thing to do,” Amanda Frentz, director of public relations for New Orleans City Park, told WDSU News. In some ways it’s a return to the way things used to be done, Frentz said. Before 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, visitors could buy tickets for a walking or driving tour, she said. But the hurricane damaged the park’s infrastructure so much that it became strictly a walking tour, she said.

Maine

Portland: The state has launched a grant program designed to help health care organizations continue serving patients during the coronavirus pandemic. The program is backed by $30 million in federal coronavirus relief dollars and is called the Maine Health Care Financial Relief Program, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said. The grant program is open to hospitals as well as nursing, congregate care and behavioral health facilities and community service providers, state officials said. The grants can go as high as $100,000, Mills said Monday. “Our health care providers, and the heroic workers they employ, have shouldered an enormous burden this year,” Mills said. “These funds, although not nearly enough to make up for their losses, will help bolster our providers at this critical time and allow them to continue providing care to Maine people.” The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 20 deaths from the virus Tuesday. That was the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number of deaths in Maine to 214.

Maryland

Annapolis: Gov. Larry Hogan and state Attorney General Brian E. Frosh are pressing leaders in Washington for more stimulus relief related to the coronavirus pandemic. The Frederick News-Post reports the governor urged President-elect Joe Biden to prioritize a new stimulus package to help states and small businesses that are struggling. The state is approaching 200,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. “States are already fighting an uphill battle to rebuild our economies and maintain essential services in education, health care, emergency operations and public safety,” the Republican wrote. Frosh, a Democrat, joined a coalition of attorneys general who are asking Congress to extend CARES Act funding through the end of next year. The congressional relief package has provided more than $2 trillion in economic relief to state and local governments. “The pandemic is not going to end Dec. 30,” Frosh said.

Massachusetts

Boston: The number of open small businesses in the state has dropped by 37% this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, while small business revenue is down 44% since the start of the year, according to Harvard researchers. “Massachusetts is seeing the same sort of national pattern with the economic crisis hitting smaller businesses particularly hard,” Sebi Devlin-Foltz, of Harvard-based Opportunity Insights, told the Boston Herald on Monday. People are staying home and spending money on online retailers, Devlin-Foltz said. The state’s hospitality sector, including restaurants, has been particularly hard-hit, according to the nonpartisan, nonprofit Opportunity Insights. The number of open small businesses in leisure/hospitality has dropped 55%, while revenue has plummeted 64%. Reduced capacities and limited hours are in large part to blame, said National Federation of Independent Business Massachusetts State Director Christopher Carlozzi.

Michigan

Detroit: The state reported 5,793 new cases of COVID-19 and 190 new deaths Tuesday, according to an update from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Thirty of those 190 deaths were found later in a regular records review that the state performs to see if a COVID-19 infection contributed to one’s death. The state now has 9,324 confirmed deaths and 366,242 confirmed cases since March. Michigan had a positivity rate of 14.72% Monday, reporting that 5,175 out of 35,155 diagnostic test results returned were positive. Michigan has a fatality rate of 2.5% among known cases. The state has reported 435 probable COVID-19 deaths and 29,211 probable cases. The probable cases combined with the confirmed cases make for a cumulative total of 9,759 deaths and 395,453 cases.

Minnesota

Minneapolis: Gov. Tim Walz said Monday that his administration plans to release details next week on when the state will start getting its first doses of coronavirus vaccines and who will be the first to get them. Walz made the comments in a briefing for reporters following a conference call with several other governors; Vice President Mike Pence; Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious-diseases expert; and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on the status of the country’s plans for distributing the vaccines. The governor has been critical of the Trump administration for its lack of coordinated federal plans for fighting the pandemic, which has put much of the onus on the states. But he had praise for the federal vaccine drive. “I believe the work around the vaccine and the plans around distribution have been incredibly well done,” Walz said.

Mississippi

Jackson: The state has reported a record number of coronavirus hospitalizations for a single day. The Department of Health said Monday that 1,008 people were hospitalized with the virus Sunday, marking the first time the number of coronavirus hospitalizations in Mississippi has topped 1,000. Numbers have risen steadily since Nov. 10, when 669 virus hospitalizations were reported. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Monday on Twitter that the record comes ahead of an “anticipated Thanksgiving acceleration” in coronavirus cases. “This is truly serious,” he wrote. “Protect yourselves and your family now. We all know how.” University of Mississippi Medical Center spokesperson Marc Rolph said no beds were available at the Jackson hospital Monday. Two patients were waiting for an intensive care unit bed to become available, and 22 were waiting for a regular hospital bed. The patients waiting for beds were a mix of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients, Rolph said.

Missouri

Kansas City: After two staff members tested positive for the coronavirus, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum has been closed for 10 days. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick said officials decided to close the museum starting Sunday to protect staff and visitors. “This precautionary measure is based on our commitment to ensuring a safe environment for our team and valued patrons,” he said in a statement. Kendrick said the museum plans to reopen Dec. 8. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Leagues.

Montana

Billings: Montana Tech announced Monday that it was suspending activities for its men’s and women’s basketball teams after players tested positive for the coronavirus, as it continues to spread among students of all ages in the state. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Montana colleges and universities more than doubled, to at least 2,375 cases, during a one-month period ending Nov. 20, according a report from the Montana Department of Health and Human Services released Friday. Confirmed cases among K-12 schools followed a similar upward trajectory during the monthlong period, increasing from 1,033 students in late October to 2,263 students confirmed with COVID-19 by late November, the report said. Positive tests among teachers and other staff also more than doubled, to 909 cases. Montana State University in Bozeman has the highest count of any school in the state, with 1,289 cases, according to the report.

Nebraska

Omaha: The state has passed the grim milestone of 1,000 deaths linked to the coronavirus, and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 remains high. Officials reported 29 new deaths Monday to give the state 1,018 total since the pandemic began. The state also reported 1,941 new cases of the virus to push the overall tally up to 128,407. The number of people being treated for the virus in hospitals grew Monday to 907 from the previous day’s 896. That remains below the record of 987 that was set Nov. 20, but the total is four times higher than it was two months ago. The state said COVID-19 patients are filling 23% of Nebraska’s hospital beds. If that number reaches 25%, additional social distancing restrictions will be imposed across the state. Nebraska continued to have the sixth-highest rate of infections in the nation Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Nevada

Las Vegas: The coronavirus pandemic is prompting the state’s public higher education system to continue allowing students the option to receive satisfactory/unsatisfactory grades instead of being scored on traditional letter grades through the current academic year. The Nevada System of Higher Education made the decision covering all eight public universities and colleges after many students requested the grading option because of the interruption to learning caused by the pandemic, the Las Vegas Sun reports. The fall semester ends in two weeks and was conducted mostly virtually. “Our hope in announcing this decision is to alleviate the strain many students are experiencing during this unprecedented circumstance,” NSHE Chancellor Melody Rose said in a statement. The scoring system was put into place during the spring semester, which was abruptly altered at the outset of the pandemic in mid-March.

New Hampshire

Concord: A “small number” of Republican lawmakers who attended a recent caucus meeting have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday. The development, first reported by WMUR-TV, came a day before the 400-member House and 24-member Senate were set to meet outdoors at the University of New Hampshire to be sworn in and elect officers. “We have a very small number of people affected and we have no reason to believe that the folks who tested positive will attempt to attend the event,” House Republican Leader Dick Hinch said in a statement Tuesday. Republican House members gathered Nov. 20 at McIntyre Ski area in Manchester, where they nominated Hinch to become the next House speaker. Rep. Steve Shurtleff, a Concord Democrat whose term as speaker ends Tuesday, learned of the COVID-19 cases via WMUR even though leaders from both parties met at UNH on Monday. He criticized Hinch both for not notifying him and for holding the event in the first place, saying those decisions put the lives of all lawmakers and staff at risk.

New Jersey

New Brunswick: Rutgers University is seeking 70 volunteers who have tested positive for the coronavirus – but have only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all – to test a drug combination within two days of their positive test result. The study aims to find out whether the medication, a combination of three already-approved antiviral drugs, will keep them from getting sicker and help stop the spread of the disease. Finding an inexpensive, oral treatment for people to take at home soon after they test positive to avoid severe illness or spreading the disease is an important goal of current research. “Much of the research done to this point has been of hospitalized patients who are really, really sick,” said Dr. Jeffrey Carson, principal investigator for the study at Rutgers. But that leaves out the majority of the population that comes down with COVID-19.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: Residents have waited in longer lines for coronavirus testing and must wait several days to several weeks for test results as confirmed cases surge throughout the state, health officials said. Department of Health spokesperson Marisa Maez said Monday that the waits are happening because more daily cases mean more testing, putting strain on laboratories and increasing result delays, The Santa Fe New Mexican reports. According to data posted by the Department of Health on Friday, the state’s seven-day average daily testing number is 12,651 – compared to 5,000 tests daily earlier in the pandemic. There is a “tremendous influx of tests pouring into the state lab; roughly 3,000 per day. Meantime, other contracted labs both in and outside of New Mexico are equally as overwhelmed,” Maez said. There is also a slower process of informing people about their results because most are opting out of text message alerts, forcing health workers to make calls directly, she said. Many people don’t answer because they are called from numbers they don’t know.

New York

New York: The state’s hospitals must prepare for an expected surge in coronavirus infections by stockpiling masks and gowns, expanding capacity, and identifying retired nurses and doctors who could pitch in, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday. Cuomo said that with more than 3,500 people now hospitalized statewide for COVID-19 and more cases expected in the coming weeks, hospitals must draw up plans to redistribute patients both within health care networks and between networks so that no one hospital becomes overwhelmed, as happened when the pandemic first hit New York last spring. The 3,500 figure is up from 900 people hospitalized in late June, Cuomo said, and cases will only rise as New Yorkers gather to celebrate the holidays. Hospitals in Erie County in western New York must stop performing elective surgeries as of Friday, Cuomo said. New Yorkers should be responsible and not host gatherings over the holidays, since law enforcers can’t monitor everyone’s homes, the Democrat said.

North Carolina

Winston-Salem: Officials say some households in the state will be eligible to receive federal money to cover one monthly winter heating bill. The Winston-Salem Journal reports the money would come from the federal Low-Income Energy Assistance program. North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services said the money is meant to help thousands of eligible seniors and people with disabilities during the coronavirus pandemic. The payment amounts will be based on the heating source. For instance, $300 will be available for coal or wood. People who use natural gas or oil would get $400. For electric, the amount is $500. “More of our neighbors may be facing financial hardships because of COVID-19, and this funding can help eligible households with their heating expenses this winter,” state Health Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said in a statement.

North Dakota

Bismarck: State lawmakers decided Tuesday to require masks at least temporarily at the Capitol, a move that is supported by legislative leaders but opposed by far-right members of the Republican-controlled Legislature. House Majority Leader Chet Pollert and Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner told reporters they support a mask mandate at Capitol legislative spaces to help protect lawmakers and the public. Senate and House lawmakers approved rules Tuesday afternoon to cover the three-day organizational session only. Both chambers are expected to finalize the rules Thursday for the session that convenes Jan. 5. The organizational session comes as state health officials on Tuesday reported 27 new deaths due to complications from the coronavirus, increasing the total number of fatalities to 954. A total of 409 new positive tests also were reported Tuesday. Hospitalizations due to complications from the coronavirus dropped for the first time in six days in North Dakota, according to state health officials.

Ohio

Columbus: The first day of December began badly for the state, after it experienced its worst-yet month of the COVID-19 pandemic in November. State health officials recorded 9,030 new coronavirus cases Tuesday – well above the three-week average of 8,029. And 119 additional deaths, the second-highest daily total of the pandemic, also were reported from the still-spreading viral infection. Daily hospitalizations also increased by a record 585 patients to continue ratcheting up pressure on medical centers dealing with ever more virus patients and some staffing shortfalls due to sick and quarantined health care workers. A daily record of 5,226 patients were hospitalized Tuesday, with 1,233 in intensive care units and 693 on ventilators to assist their breathing. Gov. Mike DeWine has warned that Ohio and its hospitals cannot tolerate another month like November, which saw a huge spike that more than tripled virus infections from October while deaths also soared. Ohio health officials and hospital leaders fear a surge atop the spike may surface in the next 10 days to two weeks following Thanksgiving gatherings.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: State legislators have gotten a pay raise for the first time in more than two decades, even as state agencies face budget cuts amid an ongoing pandemic. Lawmakers’ annual salaries jumped to $47,500 from $35,021, a 35% boost. The Legislative Compensation Board, which is made up of nonelected officials, approved the raises last year. The board is appointed by the governor, House speaker and Senate pro tempore and meets in odd-numbered years. The raises are funded through the $7.7 billion state budget that took effect July 1. The budget includes cuts of 4% for most state agencies. “The politics of it are awful,” said House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols. “The optics of it are bad, so the question becomes why did the legislative compensation committee do it? Well, they met pre-COVID.” The National Conference of State Legislatures considers the Oklahoma Legislature to be a hybrid, somewhere between part time and full time. Legislators working at “hybrid” legislatures earn an average of $30,485 per year.

Oregon

Bend: A prosecutor declined Tuesday to file criminal charges against protesters who participated in a demonstration on a public sidewalk against the governor’s mask-wearing mandate. The protesters’ constitutional rights to assembly and free speech outweighed the need to enforce Gov. Kate Brown’s mask mandate, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said in a statement. He noted that the Nov. 21 protest was not violent or destructive. Four people called the police after seeing people protesting without wearing a mask. Brown’s order requires Oregon residents to wear a mask while with anyone from outside their household if individuals cannot maintain 6 feet of distance between each other. The rule applies both indoors and outdoors and has generated pushback from some who find it too restrictive. Hummel said the mask mandate was constitutional, but in this instance he felt the protesters’ rights took precedence. “My philosophy is content neutral, meaning, it applies to people who gather for ‘liberal’ causes and to people who gather for ‘conservative’ causes,” Hummel wrote.

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: The governor on Monday rejected a bill that would have made it harder to sue schools, health care providers and other businesses for coronavirus-related claims. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said the measure’s liability protections were so broad that the legislation would have invited “the potential for carelessness and a disregard for public safety.” The bill passed both chambers with mostly Republican support and Democratic opposition. It would have applied to cases of exposure to the coronavirus during a governor-declared disaster emergency. Supporters argued the pandemic should not impose on businesses and others expensive or even ruinous litigation. The bill had been supported by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. Wolf’s veto message argued that with the pandemic spreading, it is not a good idea to be providing legal protections “for noncompliance or carelessness.”

Rhode Island

Providence: The state has opened two field hospitals that combined have more than 900 beds as the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Rhode Island reached a new high. There were 410 patients in the state’s hospitals with the disease as of Sunday, the most recent date for which the information was available, the state Department of Health reported Tuesday. That is the highest number of people hospitalized with the disease on a single day since the pandemic began. Care New England opened a field hospital with more than 300 beds in Cranston on Monday, the same day the state sent an emergency alert saying conventional hospitals had reached their coronavirus capacity. A facility with nearly 600 beds opened Tuesday at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence. It is run by Lifespan, the state’s largest hospital group. The Lifespan facility expected to admit 24 to 48 patients Tuesday but may need more staff, Chief Nursing Executive Cathy Duquette said.

South Carolina

Greenville: Clemson University will require all its students to get tested weekly for the coronavirus next semester, a tightening of the university’s already strict COVID-19 protocols. This fall, on-campus students – who represent about 30% of the student body – were required to get tested once a week, and off-campus students were pulled randomly for sample testing. At a board of trustees meeting Tuesday, President James Clements said the university would “stay the course” on its COVID-19 strategies, which he said were among the “most aggressive in the nation.” The change comes as Clemson’s testing capacity increased to 10,000 tests a day at the on-campus saliva lab. The university will also require pre-arrival testing for all students as it did in the fall. On-campus students cannot return to campus without submitting two negative COVID-19 tests, according to Provost Bob Jones. Employees and off-campus students will be required to submit one negative COVID-19 test, Jones said.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: The state Department of Health reported Tuesday that 3,542 people recovered from COVID-19, a one-day record that drove the number of active cases in the state to its lowest level since Nov. 5. An additional 448 people tested positive for coronavirus, the lowest one-day total since Oct. 13. The new recoveries minus the new infections left the state with 14,088 active infections. The new positive results were among 5,634 new tests reported. The seven-day average dropped to 865. The high was 1,458 on Nov. 14. Two more people with COVID-19 died, bringing the pandemic total to 948. The new fatalities were in women 80 or older. The number of people hospitalized with the disease stood at 547, one more than the previous day. As of Tuesday, 4,572 South Dakotans have been hospitalized with COVID-19.

Tennessee

Nashville: November marked the worst month yet for the state in the novel coronavirus pandemic. It was Tennessee’s deadliest month on record, with 1,249 deaths linked to COVID-19 reported by the Department of Health. The previous record was 899, set in October. November accounted for just over 27% of all COVID-19 deaths in the state since the pandemic began. Tennessee also posted its highest-ever daily increase in coronavirus cases Monday with 7,975. It marked the fourth time that record was broken in November alone. The state noted a backlog in data to account for the then-record-breaking 5,919 new cases reported Nov. 9. The surge in cases and deaths was also met with record-breaking hospitalizations in November. The spike in cases forced hospital systems in Memphis to pause elective procedures, as they did in March. As of Monday, a record 2,396 Tennesseans were actively hospitalized with COVID-19. The daily total of hospitalizations began a steady upward trend in early November. The number of hospital floor beds available across Tennessee sat at 14% at the end of the month, while just 9% of intensive care unit beds were open.

Texas

Houston: McLennan County in central Texas has closed its bars after area hospitalizations for COVID-19 exceeded a state-mandated limit. Meanwhile, in Houston, officials say they are having problems with some bars that have been allowed to reopen as restaurants but are not enforcing rules related to social distancing and mask-wearing. McLennan County Judge Scott Felton on Sunday closed bars and reduced capacity to 50% at stores, restaurants and other businesses, based on a rule announced in October by Gov. Greg Abbott, who allowed bars to reopen and other businesses to expand capacity as long as COVID-19 hospitalizations stay below 15%. On Monday, COVID-19 patients accounted for 18.4% of the hospitalizations in the state trauma service area comprised of McLennan and four other surrounding counties. Felton told the Waco Tribune-Herald he doesn’t expect the hospitalization rate to improve in the short term. Texas on Monday recorded 10,714 new coronavirus cases and 22 new deaths, health officials announced, and 8,900 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, the most since August.

Utah

Salt Lake City: The state reported far fewer new coronavirus cases in the week ending Saturday, adding 18,108. That’s down 20.7% from the previous week’s toll of 22,838 new cases. Utah ranked No. 14 among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. Cases fell in six counties, with the best declines in Salt Lake, Utah and Davis counties. The share of Utah test results that came back positive was 17.8% in the latest week, compared with 19.4% in the week before, a USA TODAY Network analysis of COVID Tracking Project data shows. In the latest week, 101,481 tests were administered; a week earlier, that figure was 117,850. Across the state, 76 people died in the latest week. In the previous week, 77 people died. A total of 192,087 people in Utah have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 863 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows.

Vermont

Montpelier: More people took to the state’s hiking trails during the coronavirus pandemic, according to recent reports. The average daily use count on the Long Trail rose 35% this year, according to the Green Mountain Club. And in September alone, overnight shelter use jumped 80% from last year, Vermont Public Radio reports. “I think this was definitely a year where the value of having these outdoor resources in Vermont and having them open really came through,” said Green Mountain Club Field supervisor Isaac Alexandre-Leach. “And so seeing how so many people who hadn’t been out in the outdoors, or hadn’t been as involved with the Vermont outdoors as they normally had, yeah, that was really special.” There also was more than twice as much pedestrian traffic on the West River Trail in Brattleboro this fall, according to findings from a recent use survey.

Virginia

Richmond: If federal regulators approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, Virginia could begin receiving limited doses as early as mid-December, the state epidemiologist told lawmakers Monday. Manufacturers already have begun stockpiling doses in anticipation of eventual approval, but the first shots in what’s expected to be the biggest vaccination effort in U.S. history will be in short supply. Dr. Lilian Peake outlined the phased approach Virginia plans to use to distribute the doses during a virtual meeting of a House committee. “We plan to work primarily through hospitals and pharmacy chains in the initial phase to vaccinate groups we anticipate may be prioritized – that’s health care workers and long-term care facility residents and staff,” she said. States are also waiting for recommendations from a federal panel called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Washington

Seattle: More than 30 patients and staff at the state’s largest psychiatric hospital are suffering from the coronavirus – the biggest spike in cases to date – and more than 150 have tested positive since the virus first hit the facility in March. Ten Western State Hospital patients on a single ward got sick within a few days of each other after a nurse tested positive about a week ago. The patients ranged in age of 62 to 82 and were moved to the hospital’s special COVID-19 ward so they’re kept away from other patients. Twelve workers tested positive within a three-day span last week, hospital officials said. Most were on the same ward as the patient spike. Officials are scrambling to find nursing staff to work on the COVID-19 ward and have offered overtime pay, according to an email from hospital CEO Dave Holt. There’s also been a COVID-19 spike at several of the state’s residential habilitation centers, with 26 patients and 63 staff testing positive at the Fircrest School, which provides support to about 200 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in a home setting.

West Virginia

Charleston: State health officials on Tuesday reported 23 deaths from the coronavirus, pushing the state’s toll 11% higher over the past week alone. The Department of Health and Human Resources said the latest victims ranged in age from 55 to 99. Harrison and Mineral counties reported the deaths of three residents from each county. In the past week, 11 virus-related deaths have been reported each from Mineral County, a county of about 27,000 people along the Maryland border, and in Marshall County, population 31,000, in the state’s northern panhandle bordering Ohio and Pennsylvania. At least 758 deaths have been reported in West Virginia since the pandemic began. The number of people in hospital intensive care units for the virus hit a record 166 on Monday, health officials said. Statewide, the number of active virus cases reached a record 16,921, up 58% in the past two weeks.

Wisconsin

Madison: State corrections officials said Tuesday that they are closing part of the Waupun prison and transferring inmates to other facilities as they deal with staffing shortages exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak. The Department of Corrections said it was closing a cell hall at the maximum-security Waupun Correctional Institution and sending its 220 inmates to other prisons. The transfers will reduce the prison’s overall population by 20% and help address staff vacancies, corrections officials said. The move came on the day Wisconsin reported 107 new deaths from COVID-19, which marked a single-day high for the state. Wisconsin has recorded 391,313 confirmed cases and 3,420 deaths from the disease since the pandemic started. The seven-day average of new cases was 3,905, continuing a decline that began two weeks ago. There were 1,845 people hospitalized because of the coronavirus as of Monday, down from the state’s high seen in mid-November. “I am hopeful that there is something real in that decline,” said state health secretary Andrea Palm.

Wyoming

Cheyenne: The governor still had mild symptoms of COVID-19 five days after testing positive for the coronavirus. Gov. Mark Gordon continued to work in isolation Monday, spokesman Michael Pearlman said. Gordon’s wife, Jennie Gordon, tested negative for the coronavirus and was isolating separately from the governor. Two staff members in the governor’s office tested positive. All other close, recent contacts of Gordon tested negative, Pearlman said. The governor first showed symptoms Nov. 22 and immediately took an at-home test. Gordon got another test at a medical clinic Wednesday. The at-home and clinic tests both came back positive for the coronavirus that day. It was unclear where Gordon contracted the virus, Pearlman said.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hospital pressure, vaccine plans: News from around our 50 states