The latest AP stories on COVID-19 outbreak in the United States

There have been 83 deaths in the past week and 3,207 overall. Lincoln Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts says he plans to join other Republican governors in challenging President Joe Bidens sweeping new vaccine requirement in court.Ricketts said on Fox News Sunday that Nebraskas attorney general has been consulting with other attorneys general who believe the federal government is overstepping its authority by mandating that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans.

West Virginia set two daily records in the past week for positive coronavirus cases as the pandemic continues to ravage the state.

Thursday's total of confirmed cases was a record 1,738, only to be broken by Saturday's total of 1,821, according to state health data. The previous one-day high of more than 1,700 was set on December 31.

The statewide total of 7,849 positive cases for the six days ending Saturday has already passed the seven-day total for the previous week, which had been the second-highest during the pandemic. Sunday's figures will be released on Monday.

The highest for one week was nearly 8,200 cases in early January, a time when virus vaccines were being offered only for people ages 65 and older.

The amount of weekly virus deaths statewide has gone up steadily since early August, when six deaths were reported for the week of Aug. 9. There have been 83 deaths in the past week and 3,207 overall.

___ Lincoln: Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts says he plans to join other Republican governors in challenging President Joe Biden's sweeping new vaccine requirement in court.

Ricketts said on "Fox News Sunday" that Nebraska's attorney general has been consulting with other attorneys general who believe the federal government is overstepping its authority by mandating that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. The roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.

"This is really going to create huge problems for all small businesses and for our American workers. and again, you shouldn't have to make the choice of keeping your job or getting a jab in the arm," Ricketts said.

In Nebraska, Ricketts has encouraged people to get vaccinated and wear masks but he has resisted mandates to do either.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska has risen over the past two weeks from 715.14 new cases per day on Aug. 27 to 822.86 new cases per day on Friday as the highly contagious delta variant of the virus spreads.

Ricketts said he is focused on making sure hospitals have enough capacity to handle the surge in COVID-19 cases.

___ Little Rock: Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says federal vaccination mandates announced by President Joe Biden last week hurt efforts to overcome the public's resistance to taking the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Republican governor has been notable in working to persuade reluctant Arkansas residents to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. But in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Hutchinson said a comprehensive federal vaccination mandate "hardens the resistance." The expansive rules mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding also will have to be fully vaccinated.

Hutchinson said federal requirements are "counterproductive," interfering with state vaccination efforts instead of supporting them. "We talked about the fact that we've historically had vaccination requirements in schools," he said. "But those have always come at the state level, never at the national level." "And so this is an unprecedented assumption of federal mandate authority that really disrupts and divides the country. It divides our partnership between the federal government and the states. And it increases the division in terms of vaccination when we should all be together trying to increase the vaccination uptake," he adde ____ Yucaipa: The husband of a California nurse who died of COVID-19 more than two weeks ago has died after battling the disease himself.

A family member told news station KTLA-TV that Daniel Macias of Yucaipa died on Thursday, leaving behind five young children, including a newborn girl. He and his wife, Davy Macias contracted COVID-19 after going on a family trip to the beach and an indoor water park.

They were admitted to the hospital days apart, and it was there that a doctor delivered the couple's daughter several days before Davy Macias died. Her brother said she was hesitant to get vaccinated because she was pregnant.

___ Cedar Rapids: Hospitals in Iowa's second-largest city are limiting elective procedures because of increased numbers of patients driven partly by a surge in COVID-19 admissions.

The Cedar Falls Gazette reports that both UnityPoint Health-St. Luke's Hospital and Mercy Medical Center confirmed Friday their facilities are preserving capacity because of high patient counts in recent weeks. Cedar Rapids hospitals had not delayed or postponed elective surgeries and procedures since last fall.

St. Luke's is limiting surgeries that require a hospital stay to 10 per day.

Mercy officials confirmed that it also is temporarily reducing the number of elective procedures that require hospital stays after surgery.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)