State Update: U.S. Daily Death Toll Shoots Back Up Over 1,000, 20 States Start Paying Extra $300 Weekly Unemployment Benefit, N.Y. Commuters Face Fines if They Don't Mask Up

September 10, 2020

  • An additional 1,206 coronavirus-related fatalities were recorded in the United States on Wednesday, a nearly threefold increase from the previous day, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The country's latest daily death toll from COVID-19 -- the highest since Aug. 26 -- is still under its record set on April 17, when there were 2,666 new fatalities in a 24-hour reporting period.
  • At least 20 states have either paid or are starting to issue an extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits through the federal Lost Wages Assistance program. They are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
  • Public transit passengers in New York will face a $50 fine if they do not wear masks on subways, buses or commuter lines including the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North, according to the MTA. The measure goes into effect Monday. The fines are the agency’s latest effort to increase mask compliance among public transit riders. The MTA says it has distributed over 4 million masks.


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