Mexico Tops 35,000 Deaths, 4th Highest in World

At Mississippi State and the University of Mississippi, all members of the community will be required to wear masks inside and out of the classroom, where class sizes will be reduced by 50%.

"While we remain focused on preserving the on-campus experience, Covid-19 has forced us to rethink everything we do," University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn F. Boyce said in a letter to the campus community in late June.

New cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus and numbers of hospitalizations are still rising in Mississippi. On Friday, the state reported 1,031 new cases — one of its single highest increases.

In Dickinson, North Dakota, metal band Great White apologized for performing at an outdoor concert where the crowd didn't wear masks despite the pandemic.

The band drew criticism on social media after the performance Thursday night as part of the "First on First: Dickinson Summer Nights" concert series in Dickinson, in the southwest of the state. Spin magazine posted video showing the crowd packed in and not wearing face masks.

"We have had the luxury of hindsight and we would like to apologize to those who disagreed with our decision to fulfill our contractual agreement. The promoter and staff were nothing but professional and assured us of the safety precautions," Great White said in a statement Saturday.

Although North Dakota health officials recommend social distancing and wearing masks when possible, there is no legal requirement to do so in the state and Great White said the band was "not in a position to enforce the laws."

The band is best known for its version of "Once Bitten, Twice Shy." A different iteration of Great White that included longtime frontman Jack Russell and performed under the name Jack Russell's Great White was involved in one of the most tragic concerts in U.S. history in 2003. During a show at The Station nightclub in Rhode Island, the band's pyrotechnics sparked a fast-moving blaze that caused a bottleneck as fans tried to flee. The fire killed 100 people.

In Barcelona, Spain, regional authorities Spain have tightened a health lockdown and ordered more than 140,000 people to leave their homes only for work and other essential activities.

Catalan authorities announced the confinement on Sunday, a week after they had limited travel to and from the county of El Segria, population 210,000, because of an outbreak of the coronavirus.

Lleida, with 138,000 residents, is one of the municipalities in which people are confined to their homes.

"We must break the chain of contagion," said regional health authority Alba Vergés. "We must limit our contact to those people we live with."

The outbreak in the rural area is connected to farm work and seasonal day laborers, many of whom work and live in precarious conditions.

Catalan health authorities are also keeping close watch on an outbreak in Hospitalet, a densely populated municipality in the greater Barcelona metropolitan area. In total, northeast Catalonia reported more than 800 new cases on Sunday.

Spain emerged from a three-month nationwide lockdown in mid-June that it needed to rein in the virus that has claimed at least 28,000 lives.

In Johannesburg, South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa said Sunday the country will return to a ban of alcohol sales immediately to reduce the volume of trauma patients so that hospitals have more beds to treat Covid-19 patients.

Confronted by surging hospitalizations due to the coronavirus, South Africa is also reinstating a night curfew to reduce traffic accidents and has made it mandatory for residents to wear face masks in public.

Ramaphosa said that top health officials warn of impending shortages of hospital beds and medical oxygen as South Africa reaches a peak of Covid-19 cases, expected between the end of July and September.

South Africa's rapid increase in reported cases has made it one of the world's centers for Covid-19, now the ninth most-affected country by the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country has reported increases of more than 10,000 confirmed cases for several days and the latest daily increase was nearly 13,500. South Africa accounts for 40% of the confirmed cases in Africa, with 264,184, including 3,971 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Geneva, the World Health Organization reported another record in the increase in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases over a 24-hour period: more than 230,000.

The U.N. health agency said Sunday the United States again topped the list among countries, with more than 66,000 new cases recorded — nearly 30% of the world’s total.

The figures do not necessarily account for delays in reporting of cases, and are believed to greatly underestimate actual case totals.

Still, the trend line of confirmed cases continues to increase — with three largest counts coming in over the last three days.

The previous record was Friday, with more than 228,000 newly recorded cases worldwide in a 24-hour span.

Overall, the WHO has counted more than 12.5 million confirmed cases and more than 561,000 deaths from COVID-19.

In New York state, education officials are to begin outlining what will need to be done to reopen schools as Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state has maintained a "low and stable" number of people testing positive for coronavirus.

The state Education Department was to present a framework for the long-awaited reopening guidance to the Board of Regents on Monday, with the full guidance to come later.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio last week announced a hybrid plan for the nation's largest school district that would put most students inside their physical schools just two or three days a week. Schools can't accommodate all their students and maintain safe social distancing, he said.

Cuomo, however, said it is up to him to decide whether the state's approximately 700 school districts can open at all. He said state officials will decide in the first week of August whether to accept plans submitted by districts — and whether schools will reopen in the fall at all.

New York reported five coronavirus deaths on Sunday, matching its lowest number since the pandemic emerged there. But Cuomo said the rising number of cases elsewhere is disturbing.

"Today's numbers remain low and stable, but it is up to us to keep it that way," Cuomo said in a statement, urging people to wear masks and socially distance.

In Washington, D.C., Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Sunday the Trump administration is "trying to correct" its guidance from earlier in the pandemic that wearing face coverings was not necessary.

With virus cases surging and many states and cities issuing orders to wear masks in public, Adams said he and other administration officials were wrong back in March. But he said they were going with the scientific knowledge at the time, which suggested that people with Covid-19 who showed no symptoms were not likely to spread the virus.

Adams said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that "once upon a time, we prescribed cigarettes for asthmatics and leeches and cocaine and heroin for people as medical treatments. When we learned better, we do better."

Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University, told "Fox News Sunday" that he would have liked to have seen administration officials wear masks sooner. He says it should not be viewed as a "personal choice" but a public health imperative.

In Mexico City, the ashes of 245 Mexican emigrants who died of Covid-19 in New York have arrived back in their home nation.

A Mexican Air Force plane carrying the remains arrived at midnight Saturday in what the Foreign Relations Department called an "unprecedented" effort.

The urns were taken from the plane and placed on a table adorned with white flowers for a brief ceremony.

"It's the way Mexico expresses its gratitude for so much that our emigrants have contributed from abroad, and of course in addition to giving consolation to their families, who can give them a final goodbye in their land," said Roberto Velasco, the Foreign Relations Department's director-general for North America.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, celebrated a Mass for the coronavirus victims on Saturday at St. Patrick's Cathedral, blessing the ashes.

The Mexican government says more than 1,500 Mexican emigrants have died of Covid-19 in the United States, about half of them in New York.

In Athens, Greek authorities reported 31 new Covid-19 cases Sunday, with no fatalities during the previous 24 hours. Despite the decline in cases, authorities are still on the lookout for local outbreaks, especially in holiday spots. But only four arriving foreign tourists have tested positive since Saturday afternoon.

The total number of cases stands at 3,803, with 193 dead. There are 10 patients on ventilators, while 122 have been discharged from intensive care units.

In Le Havre, France, for the first time since the coronavirus shut down sports and chased away spectators, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe were starring in Sunday's return of fans to elite European soccer.

"Now it's for real ... we're back," Mbappe tweeted before the kickoff of Paris Saint-Germain against Le Havre, an exhibition match that was the first encounter in front of fans to feature one of Europe's elite clubs since the pandemic erupted.

Only 5,000 people were allowed inside Le Havre's 25,000-seat Stade Oceane to see the French League 2 club take on PSG's star-studded squad. Upper tiers of seating were empty.

Spectators had to wear face masks to get into the arena, although many took them off once they settled in their seats. Families and friends sat together in groups but groups stayed separated. Ball carriers wore masks and gloves. Loudspeakers broadcast appeals for social distancing. Pitch-side photographers were made to step with their shoes into trays of disinfectant.

From London came news that a British pilot who was Vietnam's most dangerously illCovid-19 patient has arrived back home in Scotland.

Glasgow Airport said the man landed in Scotland on Sunday and was met by a waiting ambulance. He's in a hospital recuperating.

The 42-year-old, identified by the official Vietnam News Agency as Stephen Cameron, had flown out of Ho Chi Minh City the day before.

Vietnam had gone all out to save Cameron, who was working for national carrier Vietnam Airlines when he tested positive for the coronavirus in March. He had been critically ill and spent 65 days on life support.

Cameron is known in Vietnam as "Patient 91," as he was the 91st person in the country confirmed to have the coronavirus. He was the Southeast Asian nation's last patient in an ICU, and his recovery means the country still has not reported any Covid-19 deaths.

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