But for people such as Manuel Castañeda Jr., the day is very personal. He lost his father, a U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam, in an accident in 1966 in California while his father was training other Marines.

“It isn’t just the specials. It isn’t just the barbecue,” Castañeda told The Associated Press in a discussion about Memorial Day last year.

Castañeda also served in the Marines and Army National Guard, from which he knew men who died in combat. But he tries not to judge others who spend the holiday differently: “How can I expect them to understand the depth of what I feel when they haven’t experienced anything like that?”

1. WHY IS MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATED?

It’s a day of reflection and remembrance of those who died while serving in the U.S. military, according to the Congressional Research Service. The holiday is observed in part by the National Moment of Remembrance, which encourages all Americans to pause at 3 p.m. for a moment of silence.

2. WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OR MEMORIAL DAY?

The holiday stems from the American Civil War, which killed more than 600,000 service members — both Union and Confederate — between 1861 and 1865.

There’s little controversy over the first national observance of what was then called Decoration Day. It occurred May 30, 1868, after an organization of Union veterans called for decorating war graves with flowers, which were in bloom.

The practice was already widespread on a local level. Waterloo, New York, began a formal observance on May 5, 1866, and was later proclaimed to be the holiday’s birthplace.

Yet Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, traced its first observance to October 1864, according to the Library of Congress. And women in some Confederate states were decorating graves before the war’s end.

David Blight, a Yale history professor, points to May 1, 1865, when as many as 10,000 people, many of them Black, held a parade, heard speeches and dedicated the graves of Union dead in Charleston, South Carolina.

A total of 267 Union troops had died at a Confederate prison and were buried in a mass grave. After the war, members of Black churches buried them in individual graves.

“What happened in Charleston does have the right to claim to be first, if that matters,” Blight told The Associated Press in 2011.

In 2021, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel cited the story in a Memorial Day speech in Hudson, Ohio. The ceremony’s organizers turned off his microphone because they said it wasn’t relevant to honoring the city’s veterans. The event’s organizers later resigned.

3. HAS MEMORIAL DAY ALWAYS BEEN A SOURCE OF CONTENTION?

Someone has always lamented the holiday’s drift from its original meaning.

As early as 1869, The New York Times wrote that the holiday could become “sacrilegious” and no longer “sacred” if it focuses more on pomp, dinners and oratory.

In 1871, abolitionist Frederick Douglass feared Americans were forgetting the Civil War’s impetus — enslavement — when he gave a Decoration Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery.

“We must never forget that the loyal soldiers who rest beneath this sod flung themselves between the nation and the nation’s destroyers,” Douglass said.

His concerns were well-founded, said Ben Railton, a professor of English and American studies at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. Even though roughly 180,000 Black men served in the Union Army, the holiday in many communities would essentially become “white Memorial Day,” especially after the rise of the Jim Crow South, Railton told the AP in 2023.

Meanwhile, how the day was spent — at least by the nation’s elected officials — could draw scrutiny for years after the Civil War. In the 1880s, then-President Grover Cleveland was said to have gone fishing — and “people were appalled,” Matthew Dennis, an emeritus history professor at the University of Oregon, told the AP last year.

By 1911, the Indianapolis 500 held its inaugural race on May 30, drawing 85,000 spectators. A report from The Associated Press made no mention of the holiday — or any controversy.

4. HOW HAS MEMORIAL DAY CHANGED?

Dennis said Memorial Day’s potency diminished somewhat with the addition of Armistice Day, which marked World War I’s end on Nov. 11, 1918. Armistice Day became a national holiday by 1938 and was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

An act of Congress changed Memorial Day from every May 30th to the last Monday in May in 1971. Dennis said the creation of the three-day weekend recognized that Memorial Day had long been transformed into a more generic remembrance of the dead, as well as a day of leisure.

In 1972, Time Magazine said the holiday had become “a three-day nationwide hootenanny that seems to have lost much of its original purpose.”

5. WHY IS MEMORIAL DAY TIED TO SALES AND TRAVEL?

Even in the 19th century, grave ceremonies were followed by leisure activities such as picnicking and foot races, Dennis said.

The holiday also evolved alongside baseball and the automobile, the five-day work week and summer vacation, according to the 2002 book “A History of Memorial Day: Unity, Discord and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

In the mid-20th century, a small number of businesses began to open defiantly on the holiday.

Once the holiday moved to Monday, “the traditional barriers against doing business began to crumble,” authors Richard Harmond and Thomas Curran wrote.

These days, Memorial Day sales and traveling are deeply woven into the nation’s muscle memory.

Jason Redman, a retired Navy SEAL who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the AP last year that he honors the friends he’s lost. Thirty names are tattooed on his arm “for every guy that I personally knew that died.”

He wants Americans to remember the fallen — but also to enjoy themselves, knowing lives were sacrificed to forge the holiday.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn a judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs, officials said Wednesday.

The notice came minutes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week.

A notice of appeal was filed in federal court in Tampa.

The CDC said in a statement Wednesday that it is its “continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.”

It remained unclear whether the Biden administration would ask the appeals court to grant an emergency stay to immediately reimpose the mask mandate on public transit. An emergency stay of the lower court’s ruling would be a whiplash moment for travelers and transit workers. Most airlines and airports, many public transit systems and even ride-sharing company Uber lifted their mask-wearing requirements in the hours following Monday’s ruling.

A federal judge in Florida had struck down the national mask mandate for mass transit on Monday, leading airlines and airports to swiftly repeal their requirements that passengers wear face coverings. The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that it would it will no longer enforce the mask requirement.

The CDC had recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant, which is now responsible for the vast majority of U.S. cases. But the court ruling Monday had put that decision on hold.

The CDC said it will continue to monitor public health conditions to determine if a mandate would remain necessary. It said it believes the mandate is “a lawful order, well within CDC’s legal authority to protect public health.”

Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said Wednesday night that the department was filing the appeal “in light of today’s assessment by the CDC that an order requiring masking in the transportation corridor remains necessary to protect the public health.”

Biden’s administration has offered mixed messages in the wake of the Monday ruling. While officials said Americans should heed the CDC’s guidance even if it was no longer a requirement, Biden himself suggested they had more flexibility on masking-up during transit.

“That’s up to them,” Biden declared during a Tuesday visit to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The White House nonetheless continues to require face coverings for those traveling with him on Air Force One, citing guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that Biden still is encouraging Americans to wear masks when traveling and that he had been “answering the question quite literally” a day before.

“People are not legally bound to wear masks,” she said, after the court order. “So, it is a point in time where it is up to people — it is their choice, in that regard.

After a winter surge fueled by the omicron variant that prompted record hospitalizations, the U.S. has seen a significant drop in virus spread in recent months, leading most states and cities to drop mask mandates.

But several Northeast cities have seen a rise in hospitalizations in recent weeks, leading Philadelphia to bring back its mask mandate.

The appeal drew criticism from the U.S. Travel Association, which along with other industry groups had been pressuring the Biden administration for months to end the mask mandate for travel.

“Masks were critically important during the height of the pandemic,” said Tori Emerson Barnes, the group’s executive vice president of public affairs and policy, “but with low hospitalization rates and multiple effective health tools now widely available, from boosters to therapies to high-quality air ventilation aboard aircraft, required masking on public transportation is simply out of step with the current public health landscape.”

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in countries on opposite sides of the world Sunday and many governments rushed to close their borders even as scientists cautioned that it’s not clear if the new variant is more alarming than other versions of the virus.

The variant was identified days ago by researchers in South Africa, and much is still not known about it, including whether it is more contagious, more likely to cause serious illness or more able to evade the protection of vaccines. But many countries rushed to act, reflecting anxiety about anything that could prolong the pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people.

Israel decided to bar entry to foreigners, and Morocco said it would suspend all incoming flights for two weeks starting Monday — among the most drastic of a growing raft of travel curbs being imposed by nations around the world as they scrambled to slow the variant’s spread. Scientists in several places — from Hong Kong to Europe to North America — have confirmed its presence. The Netherlands reported 13 omicron cases on Sunday, and both Canada and Australia each found two.

Noting that the variant has already been detected in many countries and that closing borders often has limited effect, the World Health Organization called for frontiers to remain open.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, meanwhile, emphasized that there is no data yet that suggests the new variant causes more serious illness than previous COVID-19 variants.

“I do think it’s more contagious when you look at how rapidly it spread through multiple districts in South Africa. It has the earmarks therefore of being particularly likely to spread from one person to another. … What we don’t know is whether it can compete with delta,” Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Collins echoed several experts in saying the news should make everyone redouble their efforts to use the tools the world already has, including vaccinations, booster shots and measures such as mask-wearing.

“I know, America, you’re really tired about hearing those things, but the virus is not tired of us,” Collins said.

The Dutch public health authority confirmed that 13 people who arrived from South Africa on Friday have so far tested positive for omicron. They were among 61 people who tested positive for the virus after arriving on the last two flights to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport before a flight ban was implemented. They were immediately put into isolation, most at a nearby hotel.

Canada’s health minister says the country’s first two cases of omicron were found in Ontario after two individuals who had recently traveled from Nigeria tested positive.

Authorities in Australia said two travelers who arrived in Sydney from Africa became the first in the country to test positive for the new variant. Arrivals from nine African countries are now required to quarantine in a hotel upon arrival. Two German states reported a total of three cases in returning travelers over the weekend.

Israel moved to ban entry by foreigners and mandate quarantine for all Israelis arriving from abroad.

And Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday that Japan is considering stepping up border controls. Kishida told reporters that he planned to announce new measures in addition to the current 10-day quarantine requirement for travelers from South Africa and eight other nearby countries. Japan still has its border closed to foreign tourists from any country.

Morocco’s Foreign Ministry tweeted Sunday that all incoming air travel to the North African country would be suspended to “preserve the achievements realized by Morocco in the fight against the pandemic, and to protect the health of citizens.” Morocco has been at the forefront of vaccinations in Africa, and kept its borders closed for months in 2020 because of the pandemic.

The U.S. plans to ban travel from South Africa and seven other southern African countries starting Monday. “It’s going to give us a period of time to enhance our preparedness,” the United States’ top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said of the ban on ABC’s “This Week.”

Many countries are introducing such bans, though they go against the advice of the WHO, which has warned against any overreaction before the variant is thoroughly studied.

Fauci says it will take approximately two more weeks to have more definitive information on the transmissibility, severity and other characteristics of omicron, according to a statement from the White House.

South Africa’s government responded angrily to the travel bans, which it said are “akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker.”

The WHO sent out a statement saying it “stands with African nations” and noting that travel restrictions may play “a role in slightly reducing the spread of COVID-19 but place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.” It said if restrictions are put in place, they should be scientifically based and not intrusive.

In Europe, much of which already has been struggling recently with a sharp increase in cases, officials were on guard.

The U.K. on Saturday tightened rules on mask-wearing and on testing of international arrivals after finding two omicron cases, but British Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the government was nowhere near reinstituting work from home or more severe social-distancing measures.

“We know now those types of measures do carry a very heavy price, both economically, socially, in terms of non-COVID health outcomes such as impact on mental health,” he told Sky News.

Spain announced it won’t admit unvaccinated British visitors starting Dec. 1. Italy was going through lists of airline passengers who arrived in the past two weeks. France is continuing to push vaccinations and booster shots.

David Hui, a respiratory medicine expert and government adviser on the pandemic in Hong Kong, agreed with that strategy.

He said the two people who tested positive for the omicron variant had received the Pfizer vaccine and exhibited very mild symptoms, such as a sore throat.

“Vaccines should work but there would be some reduction in effectiveness,” he said.

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Is travel safe during the pandemic this holiday season?

It depends. It can be safe if you’re fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but officials say people who haven’t gotten the shots should delay travel.

Regardless of vaccination status, all travelers should keep taking precautions like avoiding indoor, unmasked crowds, says Dr. Keith Armitage, an infectious disease expert at Case Western Reserve University.

“The delta variant has really brought us back to an earlier time in the pandemic,” he says.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says not to travel if you’re sick, or if you tested positive for COVID-19 and your isolation period isn’t over yet — even if you’re fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated people who decide to travel should get a COVID-19 test one to three days before travel and three to five days after returning.

All travelers must still wear masks on trains, planes and other indoor public transportation areas, the agency says.

Airlines say plane cabins are low risk since they have good air circulation and filtration. However, there is no requirement for vaccination or testing before domestic flights, and passengers can remove their face masks while eating or drinking.

Hotels aren’t risky for the vaccinated as long as they wear masks around strangers, Armitage says. More fraught are family gatherings with unvaccinated individuals, particularly for those who are older or have health problems.

Health experts suggest looking at the case levels and masking rules in the place you are visiting before you travel.

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NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. says that it’s inviting the global community to visit now that the government has ended the ban on travelers from 33 countries.

In reality, however, it will still be difficult — if not impossible — for much of the globe to enter the country and experts say it will take years for travel to fully recover.

For starters, half the world isn’t vaccinated and therefore doesn’t meet the U.S. requirement for visiting foreigners. So while many Europeans may now be able to come in, people from poorer countries where vaccines are scarce remain cut off, with limited exceptions.

For some public health experts, that raises ethical questions about the policy.

“The concern is not limiting access based on vaccination status,” said Nancy Kass, deputy director of public health in the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. “It is that it’s systemically making it impossible for people, generally from poor countries, whose governments have been unable to secure anything near the supply they need, to be able to come and see their loved ones.”

Even if you’ve gotten the jab, that might not be good enough. Non-immigrant adults need to have received vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration or which received an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization, otherwise they, too, are prohibited from entering the U.S. That sidelines anyone who’s received Russia’s Sputnik V or the China-produced CanSino jab.

Then there are the months-long delays in some places to get a visa. The U.S. Travel Association says that, on average, there’s a six-month visitor visa appointment backlog as many U.S. consulates and embassies have yet to resume normal operations. Meanwhile, other countries have their own strict rules, which complicates foreign travel.

Experts do expect a wave of travelers at U.S. airports, which will go a long way to boost the overall industry. The 28 European countries that up until Monday were barred under the U.S. policy made up 37% of overseas visitors in 2019, the U.S. Travel Association says.

Travelport, which analyzes airline bookings data, says that by region, the greatest number of international travelers to the U.S. since mid-2020 has come from Latin America, but new travelers booking flights since late September, when the Biden administration said it would end the travel bans, are mainly European. The reopening of the land borders with Canada and Mexico should also help restore travel, since they are typically the top two sources of international visitors to the U.S.

But the U.S. Travel Association predicted in June that international travel would not return to 2019 levels of nearly 80 million visitors until 2024. Foreign travelers dropped to 19 million in 2020 and is expected to rise a bit this year, to more than 26 million; it will more than double, to about 57 million, in 2022 but still fall far short of its pre-pandemic heights.

The U.S. isn’t alone in trying to jump-start travel as more people get vaccinated. Some countries that closed their borders have begun easing back, like Australia, India and Thailand; Europe opened its doors to Americans months ago.

Others, like China and Japan, remain essentially closed, which makes it difficult for their own citizens to leave and come back because of mandatory quarantines. In 2019, the two countries were among the top five biggest sources of overseas visitors to the U.S., along with the U.K., South Korea and Brazil, according to U.S. government data.

Sylvia Li, who is from China and lives in the U.S., just married her partner in a small ceremony in New York a few weeks ago without her family there because she had no idea when they’d be able to come or when she’d be able to go to China.

“I was able to convince them, it’s really nothing, it’s just a party,” Li said. But her mom didn’t fall for it. “I think my mom felt she was missing out. She felt like she was actually missing something big.”

Edgar Orozco, who owns two restaurants, both called Chelito’s, in El Paso, Texas, was excited for the land border with Mexico to reopen on Monday, and he hopes that helps fill the streets of downtown El Paso with shoppers — and customers at his restaurants — this holiday season, unlike last year, when he said streets were empty.

“Now that non-essential travelers are going to be able to come back, we’re looking forward to going back to those good old days,” he said.

But he’s heard of people who have visa issues, like a vendor in Mexico who he says can’t renew his visa until 2023. The appointment wait time for a U.S. visitor visa in Cuidad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, is 676 days, or nearly two years, according to the State Department.

In New York, the country’s biggest tourist destination, businesses are gearing up for more international travelers. Hudson Yards, a shopping complex, is expanding its concierge services to include a wider array of foreign languages. City Experiences, a tour company that sends ferries to the Statue of Liberty and other sites, is increasing marketing abroad.

In the past two weeks, 75% of new bookings at three Moxy hotels in Manhattan have come from Europe, mostly the United Kingdom, Spain, France and Germany, said Mitchell Hochberg, president of the hotels’ operator, Lightstone.

Still, Hochberg thinks it will take until at least spring for international bookings to be back to their pre-pandemic levels.

“Travel can be cumbersome,” he said. “The flights are somewhat limited right now.”

Worry about getting COVID-19 also continues to put a damper on travel plans for many, even if they’re now allowed in.

Mehek Khera doesn’t want her parents in India to visit her in Santa Clara, California, even though they could now — they’re vaccinated and have visas. But the risk of getting sick is too high. Her father has a heart condition, and they don’t have health insurance in the U.S.

“We don’t feel comfortable adding on another risk on top of that,” Khera said. “They don’t feel very excited to travel.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — In a major easing of pandemic travel restrictions, the U.S. said Monday it will allow foreigners to fly into the country this fall if they have vaccination proof and a negative COVID-19 test — changes replacing a hodgepodge of rules that had kept out many non-citizens and irritated allies in Europe and beyond where virus cases are lower.

The changes, to take effect in November, will allow families and others who have been separated by the travel restrictions for 18 months to plan for long-awaited reunifications and allow foreigners with work permits to get back to their jobs in the U.S.

Airlines, business groups and travelers cheered — though also calling the step long overdue.

“It’s a happy day. Big Apple, here I come!” said French entrepreneur Stephane Le Breton, 45, finally able to book a trip to New York City that had been put on hold over the virus restrictions.

The new policy will replace a patchwork of travel bans first instituted by President Donald Trump last year and tightened by President Joe Biden that restrict travel by non-citizens who have in the prior 14 days been in the United Kingdom, European Union, China, India, Iran, Republic of Ireland, Brazil or South Africa.

White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients announced the new policies, which still will require all foreign travelers flying to the U.S. to demonstrate proof of vaccination before boarding, as well as proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of flight. Biden will also tighten testing rules for unvaccinated American citizens, who will need to be tested within a day before returning to the U.S., as well as after they arrive home.

The tougher rules for unvaccinated Americans come as the White House has moved to impose sweeping vaccination-or-testing requirements affecting as many as 100 million people in an effort to encourage holdouts to get shots.

Fully vaccinated passengers will not be required to quarantine, Zients said.

There will be no immediate change to U.S. land border policies, which restrict much cross-border travel with Mexico and Canada.

The travel bans had become the source of growing geopolitical frustration, particularly among allies in the UK and EU. The easing comes ahead of Biden meeting with some European leaders on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly this week.

“This is based on individuals rather than a country-based approach, so it’s a stronger system,” Zients said.

The EU and UK had previously moved to allow vaccinated U.S. travelers in without quarantines, in an effort to boost business and tourism. But the EU recommended last month that some travel restrictions be reimposed on U.S. travelers to the bloc because of the rampant spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus in America.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will require airlines to collect contact information from international travelers to facilitate tracing, Zients said.

It was not immediately clear which vaccines would be acceptable under the U.S. system and whether those unapproved in the U.S. could be used. Zients said that decision would be up to the CDC.

Monday’s announcement was met with applause by the air travel industry, which has lost significant revenue from declines in international travel.

Delta Air Lines spokesman Morgan Durrant said, “Science tells us that vaccinations coupled with testing is the safest way to re-open travel, and we are optimistic this important decision will allow for the continued economic recovery both in the U.S. and abroad and the reunification of families who have been separated for more than 18 months.”

Worldwide, air travel is still down more than half from pre-pandemic levels, and the decline is much sharper for cross-border flying. By July, domestic travel had recovered to 84% of 2019 numbers, but international travel was just 26% of the same month two years ago, according to figures this month from the airline industry’s main global trade group, the International Air Transport Association.

The numbers are similar but not quite as stark for the U.S., where international travel in August was 46% of that in August 2019, according to Airlines for America. Arrivals by non-U.S. citizens were only 36% of the 2019 level.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he was “delighted” by the news. He said: “It’s a fantastic boost for business and trade, and great that family and friends on both sides of the pond can be reunited once again.”

Airlines hailed the U.S. decision as a lifeline for the struggling industry. Tim Alderslade, chief executive of industry body Airlines U.K. said it was “a major breakthrough.”

Shai Weiss, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said it was “a major milestone. … The U.K. will now be able to strengthen ties with our most important economic partner, the U.S., boosting trade and tourism as well as reuniting friends, families and business colleagues.”

“The travel bans were really behind the times,’’ said Maka Hutson, counsel specializing in immigration issues at the law firm Akin Gump. She said they were very frustrating to European executives who’d been vaccinated but still couldn’t fly to the United States to conduct business.

The changes also drew praise from business groups, who have been contending with labor shortages as the economy bounces back with unexpected strength from last year’s coronavirus recession. U.S. employers have been posting job openings — a record 10.9 million in July — faster than applicants can fill them.

Myron Brilliant, head of international affairs for the U..S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement, “Allowing vaccinated foreign nationals to travel freely to the United States will help foster a robust and durable recovery for the American economy.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California added five more states, including Florida, to the list of places where state-funded travel is banned because of laws that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community, the state attorney general announced Monday.

Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta added Florida, Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia to the list that now has 17 states where state employee travel is forbidden except under limited circumstances.

“Make no mistake: We’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country — and the State of California is not going to support it,” Bonta said.

Lawmakers in 2016 banned non-essential travel to states with laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The 12 other states on the list are: Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee.

The five states newly added to the list have introduced bills in their legislatures this year that prevent transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity, block access to health care and allow the discrimination of the LGBTQ community, Bonta said.

Florida, Montana, Arkansas, and West Virginia passed laws that prevent transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity.

North Dakota signed into law a bill allowing certain publicly-funded student organizations to restrict LGBTQ students from joining without losing funding.

Arkansas passed the first law in the nation to prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming healthcare to transgender minors — regardless of the wishes of parents or whether a physician deems such care to be medically necessary.

These lawmakers “would rather demonize trans youth than focus on solving real issues like tackling gun violence beating back this pandemic and rebuilding our economy,” Bonta said.

The state law has exemptions for some trips, such as travel needed to enforce California law and to honor contracts signed before the states were added to the list. Travel to conferences or out-of-state training are examples of trips that can be blocked.

It’s unclear what effect California’s travel ban will have. Bonta did not have information about how many state agencies have stopped sending state employees to the states on the list or the financial impact of California’s travel ban on those states.

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HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong says it will ban all passenger flights from the U.K. starting Thursday as it seeks to curb the spread of new variants of the coronavirus.

It said in a statement Monday that the U.K. has been classified as “extremely high risk“ because of the “recent rebound of the epidemic situation in the U.K. and the widespread delta variant virus strain there.”

More than 95% of COVID-19 cases in the U.K. are of the delta variant, which was first identified in India. Cases have spiked in recent weeks as British authorities have relaxed coronavirus restrictions, allowing indoor gatherings and businesses including restaurants, cinemas and gyms to reopen. Scientists say the delta variant is much more transmissible than previous versions of the coronavirus, although it is uncertain if it is more deadly.

Under the classification, people who have stayed in the U.K. for more than two hours will be restricted from boarding passenger flights to Hong Kong.

It is the second time that the Hong Kong government has banned flights from the U.K., following a restriction imposed last December.

Dr. Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester who previously worked in Hong Kong, said the ban makes sense from a scientific point of view.

“The U.K. has never been good at controlling the virus and overconfidence in the vaccine is likely now spurring this (latest) wave,” he said, adding it makes “perfect sense” for Hong Kong to ban travel from Britain.

He said previous surges of COVID-19 in Hong Kong have been tiny and that exported cases in a largely unvaccinated population would be worrying.

“They want to keep that Chinese territory as pristine as possible until they can persuade people to get vaccinated,” Tang said. “And that’s going to take a long time.” He estimated that countries need to have at least 80% of their populations immunized to stop the spread of the delta variant.

The ban comes amid heightened tensions between the U.K. and China over semi-autonomous Hong Kong, which was a British colony until it was handed over to China in 1997.

The U.K. has criticized China for imposing a national security law on Hong Kong and tightening control over its media, saying Beijing is undermining the city’s autonomy.

The flight ban was triggered by a policy put in place by the government to prevent coronavirus variants from spreading in Hong Kong.

A suspension of passenger flights is imposed if five or more passengers arriving from one place test positive on arrival for a particular coronavirus variant, or a relevant virus mutation within a seven-day period.

A ban is is also triggered if 10 or more passengers from one place are confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus via any tests, including tests conducted during quarantine, within a seven-day period.

The U.K. reported more than 22,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, while more than 66% of the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Hong Kong, which for months imposed a 21-day quarantine for arrivals from most countries and implemented strict social-distancing regulations, reported three new cases of the coronavirus on Monday. It has confirmed a total of 11,921 cases since the pandemic began.

The U.K. flight ban comes as Hong Kong is looking to relax quarantine measures for most other countries, including the U.S. and Canada.

Several other countries, including the Philippines and Indonesia, also face flight bans to Hong Kong.

Last week, the World Health Organization said the delta variant is the “most transmissible” variant identified to date and said it is spreading in at least 85 countries.

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The new flights to begin August 17 will depart ONT at 11:40 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. with ONT arrivals scheduled for 12:14 p.m. and 10:39 p.m. “It is welcome news that American and other air carriers are including Ontario in their recovery plans, but it is not a surprise,” said Mark Thorpe, chief executive officer of the Ontario International Airport Authority (OIAA). “Ontario was the fastest growing U.S. airport before the COVID-19 pandemic’s sudden and severe impact on global air travel.

It is now the fastest-recovering airport in California and the third-quickest to restore flight services in the U.S.” The carrier, which flies to Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth from Terminal 4 at ONT, will serve the Chicago O’Hare route with Boeing 737-800 aircraft equipped to accommodate 172 passengers in a three-class cabin with 16 in First-Class, 30 in Main Cabin Extra and 126 in Main Cabin. The number of passengers who traveled through ONT in 2020 totaled 2.5 million, about half as many as the year before.

Many airports around the world saw passenger volume decline by 60%. Airlines operating at ONT resumed or initiated new service to five destinations including Atlanta, Chicago (Midway), Houston (Intercontinental and Hobby), Seattle and Mexico City in the second half of 2020 while plans were announced for flights to another nine markets by Spring including Chicago (O’Hare) Honolulu, Las Vegas, Miami, Newark, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento and San Francisco. Colombia-based Avianca Airlines will begin service to El Salvador this summer, the first to Central America from the Inland Empire. Ontario airport has been recognized three times since last summer for understanding and meeting the needs of its customers during the pandemic.

“We applaud the efforts of our extraordinary team during what has been a challenging year for the travel industry,” said Alan D. Wapner, President of the OIAA Board of Commissioners and Mayor pro Tem for the City of Ontario. “With the support of our airline and business partners, 2021 is shaping up to be a great year for ONT as we meet the needs of this vibrant region we serve.”

Ontario International Airport • Contributed

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Temecula: Celebrate in wine country at the Restaurant at Leoness Cellars, rated the top winery restaurant by USA Today’s readers. The 100% from scratch menu items are designed specifically to pair with the winery’s top bottles. Gourmands should book a table at the new Small Barn in Old Town Temecula, which showcase ingredients from the region, or Cork/Fire Kitchen with farm-to-table sharable plates. Enjoy working off the food on the miles of hiking trails, or soar over vineyards in a hot air balloon. Safe lodging options include Carter Estate and the Temecula Creek Inn.

Murrieta: Food and good times go hand-in-hand in Murrieta. Listen to live music or catch a game in the trendy DownTown Public House gastropub or in the traditional Shamrock Irish Pub or The Mill. Escape into nature at the 9,000-acre Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve featuring 50 different plants and animals and a network of family-friendly trails. The local Marriott and Hampton Inn offer COVID safe accommodations.

Lake Elsinore: The city is home to the largest natural freshwater lake in California. The 3,000-acre lake gives outdoors lovers the chance to sail, fish, jet ski, water ski, paddle board, kayak or simply swim and sunbathe. When you’re done playing, dine at local haunts like Jack’s BBQ or lakeside at the casual The Bobber restaurant. Safe lodging can be found at the Holiday Inn Express.

San Jacinto: Work up an appetite on the Deer Springs Trail, which runs along the famous Pacific Crest Trail for a stretch, before heading for a hearty breakfast at The Good Egg Restaurant. Located in the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains, the Soboba Springs Golf Course offers great golf with jaw-dropping views. After hitting the links visit the Canyons Steakhouse to relax before spending the night at the Soboba Casino Resort.

Idyllwild: Idylwild is quietly becoming an epicurean hotspot in Riverside County with something for everyone. Take your taste buds to Italy at Ferro, dine creekside at Idyology, sip your favorite local brew at Idylwild Brewpub or enjoy classic gourmet fare at The Gastrognome. When you’re not eating your way through town, enjoy the San Jacinto Mountains and Idyllwild Regional Park. Spend the night in the mountains at the Grand Idyllwild Lodge, featuring 10 suites and one villa.

Hemet: Stop by Hemet’s Downtown Deli, rated the best sandwich shop in the Inland Empire by the Press Enterprise to pick up the perfect picnic fare to enjoy during a day at Diamond Valley Lake or Lake Hemet. Spend the night at the Quality Inn and start the following day with fresh baked pastries from the Harvard Street Bakery.

Canyon Lake: While Canyon Lake is a private gated community, foodies can enjoy the setting at one of several local restaurants open to the public. Practice your game at the public driving range before enjoying lunch or dinner at the Country Club Bar & Grill overlooking the course. If lake views are more to your liking head for the Lighthouse Restaurant & Bar. In downtown, The Canyon Cowboy and The Urban Craft Eatery are local favorites.

Visit Temecula Valley is the region’s official tourism marketing organization and resource for visitors. The Visitors Center is located in Old Town Temecula. For visitor information and assistance, please call (888) 363-2852 or go to VisitTemeculaValley.com. Visit Temecula Valley is a contracted partner with Riverside County for the implantation of the Riverside County Tourism Recovery Campaign for the Third and First District.

Media Contact Michelle Rodriguez, 360viewPR, 213-320-7704, info@360viewpr.com

Riverside County • Contributed

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