The Latest: Arizona reports more than 4,000 virus cases

PHOENIX -- Arizona reported 4,273 confirmed coronavirus cases Tuesday and an all-time high in hospitalizations.

The state Department of Health Services says the statewide infection total is 128,097. On Monday, 3,517 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized, with record numbers using ICU beds and ventilators.

There were 92 deaths reported Tuesday, increasing Arizona’s confirmed death total to 2,337. Only eight deaths were reported Monday, a day when generally few deaths are reported due to weekend reporting lags.

Arizona became a national coronavirus hotspot after Gov. Doug Ducey in May relaxed stay-at-home orders and other restrictions. Ducey since has closed gyms and bars and limited restaurant capacity. Many local governments have imposed mask requirements.

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

— France aims to open schools by new academic year

— Teachers, parents in Florida want schools open when ‘safe’

— France, England make masks mandatory in most places

— No Olympics, no awards shows, no weddings, no summer camp, no graduations. The coronavirus pandemic has brought change to almost every part of life.

— A Montana memory care facility didn’t carry out free coronavirus testing on its residents. Now its reeling from an outbreak that's infected nearly all the residents.

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Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

ROME -- Italy’s health minister has confirmed schools will reopen in September, with antibody tests for teachers, sample testing of students and a decision on masks before classes resume.

Minister Roberto Speranza says schools will reopen Sept. 14, adding Italy couldn’t consider its lockdown over until then. Unlike other European countries that sent children back to school in late spring, Italy has kept its schools closed since early March.

On Tuesday, Italy confirmed 114 more coronavirus cases and 13 deaths.

Recently, Italy blocked flights from 13 countries, including Bangladesh, where infections are surging.

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ATHENS, Greece — The Greece government has ruled out a new lockdown after a rise in reported coronavirus infections since opening its borders.

Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias says there are no plans for a lockdown, but local restrictions could be implemented.

On Tuesday, health authorities reported 58 new infections, with 34 from international visitors, and no new deaths. That brings the country’s overall number of confirmed infections to just under 3,900, and 193 deaths in a country of about 10 million.

Starting Wednesday, visitors from Britain can enter Greece. People arriving by road through the northern borders with other Balkan countries will need to provide negative coronavirus tests.

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ACCRA, Ghana — Officials say 55 high school students and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at a boarding school in Ghana’s capital.

The Accra Girls Senior High School campus has been quarantined and angry parents have gathered outside to protest not seeing their children. Classes resumed June 22 for senior high school students and state media has confirmed cases at 10 schools, including the Accra Girls campus.

Education officials say the infection rates at the high schools are comparable to those for the general population.

Ghana has 139 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 and testing has confirmed more than 25,000 cases since the start of the pandemic.

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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron says he's aiming to reopen all schools for the new academic year under as “normal” conditions as possible.

France gradually reopened schools in May and June, and most children returned to classes. While new infections prompted a few schools to close again, the vast majority stayed open until the school year wrapped up this month.

France’s school reopening was driven by concerns about getting parents back to work to restart the economy. There were worries about children who couldn’t access online classes and families that depend on subsidized school lunches.

Schools adjusted schedules to keep children from mingling freely and kept students in one classroom instead of moving around for different subjects. Classrooms were regularly aired out, and masks were necessary for middle and high school students.

Macron pledged teachers will be “well-protected” and schools will adapt again if the virus surges before France’s 12.9 million pupils return to school around Sept. 1.

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MADRID — Authorities in northeastern Spain’s Catalonia region are making fresh attempts to prevent new coronavirus outbreaks from spreading as health experts warn that more and better contact tracing is needed.

The region of 7.5 million people has 150 workers in three shifts tasked with locating individuals who came in close contact with thousands of people who have tested positive for the virus, including more than 2,000 only in the past week.

In line with other experts who say that a ratio of one contact tracer for every three new confirmed cases would be desirable, the head of infectious diseases at Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron Hospital, Benito Almirante, calculates that Catalonia needs at least between 1,000 to 1,500 contact tracers at the current infection rate.

But the top regional official overseeing the response to the pandemic, Jacobo Mendioroz, said the system is in good shape because it largely relies on computers and only a “few more” experts are needed.

There's been at least 28,400 confirmed coronavirus deaths in Spain. The Health Ministry says more than 170 clusters have been identified since the country dropped a three-month state of emergency, 123 currently active.

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NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus is doubling the number of random coronavirus tests on arriving passengers at its two main airports each day.

The Cypriot government says 600 random tests will be performed on passengers arriving from 39 countries whose citizens aren’t required to undergo a 14-day quarantine. Travelers arriving from 17 of those countries are required to obtain health certificates declaring themselves coronavirus-free 72 hours prior to boarding a flight.

The Transport Ministry says approximately 5,500 passengers currently fly in and out of the east Mediterranean island nation’s airports daily.

Authorities plan to introduce a new and cheaper way of testing even more arriving passengers in the coming days.

Tourism is a key industry for Cyprus, directly accounting for 13% of the economy. Officials are projecting that this year, the country will receive less than a quarter of tourist arrivals in 2019.

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida confirmed 132 coronavirus deaths Tuesday, a one-day record for the state.

That’s a 10% increase from the previous record set Thursday, but likely includes deaths from Saturday or Sunday not reported until Monday.

The rolling seven-day average is 81 deaths per day, currently the second highest in the country behind Texas and double the 39 average two weeks ago. Doctors had been predicting a surge in deaths because Florida’s daily reported infection cases have gone from about 2,000 a day to more than 12,000 in the past month.

That is partly driven by increased testing. However, the percentage of tests coming back positive has increased from 6% a month ago to more than 18%.

When COVID-19 was ravaging New York three months ago, it recorded 799 deaths on April 9 and had a top seven-day average of 763 deaths on April 14. It now has one of the lowest death rates in the country per capita, recording 10 per day during the last week.

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NAIROBI, Kenya — Some 41 workers at Kenya’s largest maternity hospital have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Ministry of health Director General Dr. Patrick Amoth says 19 cases involve health care workers and 22 are hospital support staff.

He says those infected are asymptomatic and undergoing medical care under home-based isolation. Three mothers at the facility also tested positive for COVID-19, but Amoth says no babies have been affected.

He says services at the hospital will continue and measures have been put in place to protect the health workers and the public visiting the hospital.

Nurses Association of Kenya President Alfred Obengo says infection control prevention measures at the hospital weren’t followed.

The first doctor in Kenya to die of COVID-19 was buried Monday, amid calls by health professionals for better insurance coverage and compensation. Kenya has recorded 10,791 coronavirus cases and 202 confirmed deaths.

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ROME — Italy has made contingency plans to transfer recently arrived migrants with coronavirus to military hospitals after their presence in a southern seaside town sparked protests among some residents.

Italy’s interior ministry says surveillance measures were beefed up in the apartment building in the Calabrian town of Amantea to ensure the quarantine is respected among migrants who tested positive for the virus.

Other migrants who tested positive after a rescue at sea have been quarantined on a ferry offshore.

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A group of teachers and parents took part in a “motor march” in Jacksonville to promote the reopening of schools “when it’s safe.”

Two grassroots groups — the Duval Schools Pandemic Solutions Team and the Duval For a Safe Return to Campus — say they want the school district to put certain regulations in place until a vaccine for COVID-19 is available.

The 5-mile drive ended at the Duval County Public School headquarters just before the board’s meeting.

Marla Bryant, co-founder of the Duval Schools Pandemic Solutions Team, told the Florida Times-Union the group’s primary concerns include requiring masks in classrooms, keeping desks 6-feet apart, rigorous cleaning and disinfecting at each school and a full-time distance learning option for all grade levels.

Previously, the district was criticized for not offering a full-time distance learning option for K-12 students who wanted to stay enrolled in their existing school. Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has said schools should reopen as planned next month.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Coronavirus infections are rising again in the Netherlands, with the country’s public health institute reporting 534 confirmed positive tests in the last week, an increase of 102 from the previous week.

The Dutch government has relaxed many of the restrictions to rein in the spread of the virus when it nearly swamped hospital intensive care units in late March and April.

The government is still calling on people to adhere to social distancing measures and stay home and get tested if they develop symptoms of COVID-19.

The health institute reported eight confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 16 people hospitalized in the last week. The confirmed Dutch death toll is 6,135.

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SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Bosnia is reopening its border for the citizens of the European Union after four months.

Prime Minister Zoran Tegeltija says the EU citizens must provide a negative test on the coronavirus to be allowed into the country. The test must not be older than 48 hours.

Bosnia and the rest of the Balkans have faced a spike in the virus cases in the last weeks after relaxing lockdown measures during the outbreak in spring.

Bosnia is not on the list of countries allowed into the EU after the bloc recently reopened its borders. The government initially said it, too, would not reopen for EU citizens.

This has triggered protests in the southern town of Mostar and elsewhere by people who are dependent on tourism and have been hit hard in the pandemic.

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BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia’s health minister is asking people to avoid protesting against the country’s restrictive measures to combat a surge in coronavirus cases.

For over than a week, thousands of people across Serbia have been defying a ban on public gatherings of more than 10 people to demonstrate against the Serbian president’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The protests started July 7 when President Aleksandar Vucic announced the capital of Belgrade would be placed under a new three-day lockdown following a second wave of confirmed coronavirus infections.

His government ended the plan and introduced a 10-person ban, but that hasn’t stopped the protests. Vucic and health officials say the mass gatherings have contributed to the virus surge.

Serbia’s Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar says in the past 24 hours, its recorded 344 new cases and 13 deaths in the country. That makes a total of more than 4,500 confirmed cases and 418 deaths.

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LONDON — British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed the wearing of masks will be mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England. The requirement is expected to take effect July 24.

The decision follows weeks of discussion by the government about their value during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hancock told lawmakers in the House of Commons that face coverings can help keep people working in shops safe and can give people more confidence to safely shop.

“We are not out of the woods yet, so let us all do our utmost to keep this virus cornered and enjoy summer safely,” he said. Anyone not wearing a face covering can be fined 100 pounds ($125) and shops can refuse entry to anyone failing to comply.

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BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is signaling she favors people in hard-hit counties staying in their areas after major coronavirus outbreaks.

Germany has loosened many restrictions on public life during the past 2 ½ months, but local authorities will consider new restrictions if the number of infections in an area exceeds 50 per 100,000 residents during a one-week period.

Last month, a partial lockdown was imposed on the Guetersloh region of western Germany after an outbreak at a slaughterhouse. Many other German regions refused to allow people from the area to stay unless they could produce a recent negative test.

Merkel asks, “isn’t it better for the hot spot itself to say, you can only travel anywhere if you have a negative test … than if we check at every hotel in Germany whether someone from a particular county is there?”

She says it’s being discussed with state governments, which are responsible in Germany for lockdown measures.

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MADRID — Regional authorities in Andalusia, on the southern Spanish coast, approved a package of measures making face masks mandatory in all open or enclosed spaces, including beaches and swimming pools.

People can take off their mask only to swim. Fines can reach 100 euros ($114).

Other exceptions are inside family homes or when eating, and for children under 6 or people with health problems.

Andalusia, home to such historic cities as Seville, Cordoba and Granada, is also famed for its beaches. Like the rest of Spain, it is trying to control outbreaks of the coronavirus after ending a national lockdown.

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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron says he wants to require masks inside all indoor public spaces by Aug. 1.

In an interview with French television networks marking Bastille Day, Macron says “the best prevention” for the virus are masks, social distancing and hand washing.

Macron says France’s virus reproduction rate is inching past 1 again, meaning each infected person is infecting at least one other.

Many other European nations required masks in indoor public space when they started easing virus lockdowns. France took a more relaxed attitude, recommending but not requiring masks.

Recent rave parties in France and widespread backsliding on social distancing -- even within Macron’s presidential palace and other government facilities -- have raised concerns.

France has confirmed more than 30,000 virus deaths.

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