HOUSTON — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to stop detaining unaccompanied immigrant children in hotels.

That allows for expelling them without the chance to seek refuge in the United States, a new policy the government has enacted during the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled Friday the use of hotels violates a two-decade-old settlement governing the treatment of immigrant children in custody. She ordered border agencies to stop placing children in hotels by Sept. 15 and to remove children from hotels as soon as possible.

At least 577 unaccompanied children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since March have been held in hotels, sometimes for weeks, according to government data.

That’s instead of sending them to shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services, where minors receive legal services, education, and the chance to be placed with relatives living in the U.S. Those facilities are licensed by the states where they are located.

More than 13,000 beds in HHS facilities are currently empty.

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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK

— Czech Republic has 700 new cases for 1st time

— Brazil leader rapped for stirring doubt on COVID-19 vaccine

— Russia publishes virus vaccine results, weeks after approval

— India’s coronavirus caseload has surpassed 4 million, deepening misery in the country’s vast hinterlands.

— Police in Australia’s hardest-hit Victoria state made several arrests among a crowd of about 300 people protesting the lockdown in Melbourne.

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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will visit Assisi next month, in his first visit outside Rome since the coronavirus pandemic.

He’ll journey to Assisi, the birthplace in the central Italian region of Umbria of his namesake saint. He’ll sign an authoritative papal letter to clergy and faithful worldwide, the Vatican said Saturday. The encyclical is expected to stress the value of brotherly relations during and after the pandemic, a theme Francis evoked repeatedly during the pandemic.

Francis has stressed the coronavirus reveals the fragility of existence and the importance of helping one other, especially the poor.

Italy was put under lockdown in early March when it became the first country in Europe to feel the full brunt of the coronavirus.

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PRAGUE — The number of people infected with the coronavirus has continued to surge in the Czech Republic, surpassing 700 for the first time.

The Health Ministry says the day-to-day increase reached a record of 798 new confirmed cases on Friday.

The announcement comes after the country registered over 600 cases the previous two days, also records at the time.

Health authorities have already imposed new restrictive measures in the Czech capital, reacting to the spike. Starting on Wednesday, it is mandatory again to wear face masks in stores and shopping malls. At the same time, bars, restaurants and nightclubs have to be closed from midnight to 6 a.m.

The Czech Republic has 27,249 cases and 429 deaths.

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MEXICO CITY — The coronavirus pandemic has hit Mexico so hard that the governments of several states ran out of death certificates.

Officials said Friday the federal forms started running out about 15 to 20 days ago in at least three states — Baja California, the State of Mexico and Mexico City.

Authorities say a million new forms have been printed and are being distributed. The certificates are printed with special characteristics because falsification has been a problem in the past.

Mexico has suffered the fourth-highest level of COVID-19 deaths in the world. On Friday, the number of confirmed cases rose by 6,196 to 623,090, while deaths rose by 522 to 66,851. Cases in Mexico now appear to have plateaued and are no longer decreasing.

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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has reported 168 new cases of the coronavirus, the third consecutive day the daily jump came below 200 in a possible sign the country is starting to see the effects of unprecedented social distancing restrictions.

The figures released Saturday brought the national caseload to 21,010, including 333 deaths.

Officials say 115 of the new cases were in the Seoul metropolitan area, home to half of the country’s 51 million population. Infections were also reported in other big cities, including Bunsan, Gwangju, Daejeon and Daegu.

Authorities have decided to extend for another week tougher social distancing restrictions in the Seoul area, saying the viral spread is still at risky levels. Restaurants are allowed to provide only takeout and home delivery after 9 p.m. Gyms, billiard clubs and after-school academies are closed.

Officials have also shut down churches and nightspots and shifted most schools back to remote learning nationwide.

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NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana athletic and education officials are cautiously planning for high school football games to begin in October, while Gov. John Bel Edwards is expressing hope he will be able to ease some restrictions on businesses next week.

State officials, leaders of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and lawmakers discussed plans for resuming football at a meeting Friday amid positive trends in the state’s coronavirus statistics.

Later in the day, Edwards made no commitment to ease restrictions that have limited public gatherings and restaurant seating while shutting down bars since July. But, noting that current restrictions expire next Friday, he said he hopes he will be able to move to less restrictive regulations. He didn’t give any details on what looser rules might allow.

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SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico officials say enrollment in Medicaid has increased by nearly 7% in the state since the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, with employers shedding jobs and more families entering into poverty.

In a briefing Friday for state legislators, Human Services Secretary David Scrase praised federal legislation that increases the federal matching rate for Medicaid health care and allows the state to quickly extend no-cost coronavirus testing to the poor and undocumented immigrants.

At the same time, he says the current 6.2% boost in federal matching funds is inadequate to keep up with rebounding demand for medical services under Medicaid and could end abruptly at the discretion of federal health regulators.

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is urging Americans to “remain vigilant” about the coronavirus over the Labor Day weekend.

Trump said at a White House briefing Friday that “we need everybody to be careful” and to “apply common sense” in their interactions with one another.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said this week that several Midwestern states that have seen jumps in coronavirus caseloads should be especially vigilant during the holiday weekend. They are North Dakota, South Dakota, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.

Past increases in cases of COVID-19 have followed the Memorial Day and Fourth of July holidays.

Trump is eager to put the pandemic in the past, but he tells Americans to “let’s just try to get through this one weekend.”

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