July 8 coronavirus news

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced new restrictions on bars and restaurants in the city as cases of Covid-19 steadily increase across the city. 

Cantrell said during a news conference today that bars and restaurants will be limited to 25 patrons in total inside and that no bar seating will be allowed.

She also said masks will be required at all times, other than when patrons are eating and drinking. 

The new restrictions go into effect at 6 a.m. on July 11. 

Videos taken on Bourbon Street last weekend showed it crowded with people, many of whom did not have masks on.  

More context: There were 81 new cases reported in Orleans Parish on Wednesday for a total of 8,287 cases, according to the state’s Department of Health.

The city has a 10.03% positivity rate of tests conducted to date. 

Los Angeles County expects to issue guidance on reopening schools within the week, according to Health Director Barbara Ferrer.

Ferrer said she remains hopeful that cases stabilize by the end of July so districts can resume classes in mid-August.

The county plans on reopening schools once the data shows it is safe to do so, she said.

“We would never open any other sectors without looking at our data. You absolutely would not want to open a sector when you thought that the result of reopening would be an explosion of outbreaks within that sector,” Ferrer said.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced 41 new cases and two deaths related to Covid-19 Wednesday while denouncing President Trump's remarks about reopening schools.

Asked about Trump’s comments threatening to fine states that don’t reopen schools, Raimondo said, "I just, I think it’s irresponsible, dishonest and reckless."

The governor said $50 million has been allocated to assist school districts in taking necessary precautions due to Covid-19. 

About the state's reopening: Rhode Island beaches were crowded over the July 4 holiday, but no beach parking lots were ever at capacity, according to Raimondo. State officials handed out masks at beach entry points and asked beachgoers to disperse in the event of large groups congregating, she said.

As food and drink establishments have reopened in Rhode Island, state officials have found 10% are not in compliance with social distancing advisories and allow too much crowding. 

Mississippi Health Department Dr. Thomas Dobbs said the state is continuing to work on an outbreak that resulted in several legislators testing positive for coronavirus.

More on this: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has tested negative for Covid-19, his office announced on Tuesday, while the Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and State House Speaker Philip Gunn have both tested positive. 

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said he "instructed the Houston Forst Corporation to exercise its right contractually in canceling State's Republican Convention."

"Today I instructed the Houston Forst Corporation to exercise its right contractually in cancelling the State's Republican Convention that was set to take place next week at GRB. #COVID19," the mayor tweeted. 

Turner said Covid-19 is prevalent in Houston and he must do his part to help combat and mitigate the virus. 

"The public health concern for our first responders, convention workers, and those who would have attended weighed heavily in our decision making. #Houston is in the midst of a global health crisis and we are doing everything in our power to combat #COVID19," Turner tweeted.

California schools will reopen when the data shows it is safe to do so, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom 

“I’m not worried about the latest tweets,” he said, in a thinly veiled reference to President Trump.

“We need to address safely reopening schools. That to me is non-negotiable," the governor said at a news conference.

Reopening schools will be based on local conditions in the state, but Newsom added that “we must insist upon learning at the beginning of the school year.”

“Given our current data and the ongoing community transmission of this deadly virus, it’s prudent that school districts prepare a distance learning back-up plan that is ready to be implemented in the event that our data shows us this is the safest path forward,” the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement to CNN.

Anticipating that schools will continue to be a topic of conversation, Newsom implored the public that reopening is contingent on behavior.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reported 980 new Covid-19 cases across the state on Wednesday, bringing the total to 149,432. 

This is the highest number of daily cases reported since June 5, according to the the department's website.  

According to a statement from the department, positivity rate for cases between July 1 and July 7 is 2.6%.

The department also reported a total of 1,518 patients hospitalized due to the virus, with 331 in intensive care. There are a total of 7,099 deaths statewide.

To note: These figures were released by Illinois Department of Public Health, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

The number of people contracting Covid-19 in Louisiana are getting younger and more White people, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday.

There’s a smaller percentage of younger patients in intensive care unit beds and on ventilators, Edwards told reporters in Baton Rouge.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Louisiana is 70,151, according to the state’s Department of Health.

“People in Louisiana have a role to play,” he said. "It’s important (to wear masks) any time outside your home.”

The governor said the state's goal is to open up schools on time but it needs to be done safely.

If on-campus learning resumes, Edwards said it won’t look like the way it did before the coronavirus pandemic.

Thirty-two percent of Americans did not make a full, on-time housing payment in July due to the continued economic fallout of the coronavirus, according to online rental platform Apartment List.

This is the fourth straight month of a "historically high" number of Americans unable to pay their full hosing bill, the survey released on Wednesday found, and up slightly from 30% in June. Missed payments continue to hit renters, young and low-income households, and residents of dense urban areas the hardest.

And as eviction moratoriums and unemployment benefits expire across the country, Apartment List says that Americans worry missed payments could lead to them losing their homes.

"As overdue bills pile up, there is growing concern that a wave of evictions and foreclosures will hit the housing market,” the survey showed. "While eviction protections today vary dramatically from place to place, our survey shows widespread and growing concern about housing insecurity."