The city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will close its bars starting at 6 p.m. on Monday after the University of Alabama reported a rise in COVID-19 cases.

Mayor Walter Maddox signed an executive order restricting all bars from serving alcohol until Sept. 8 -- anyone who violates the order could be fined or sentenced to a maximum of 180 days in the municipal jail.

In a letter to students on Sunday, university President Stuart Bell called the rise in cases on campus to be "unacceptable" and said this is a "critical moment" for the school.

"Make no mistake, this trend is a real threat to our ability to complete the semester on campus," Bell said, adding that "violations to our health and safety protocols" are "subject to harsh disciplinary action, up to and including suspension" from the university.

University police and the Tuscaloosa Police Department will monitor bars, restaurants and off-campus residences where guidelines are not being followed.

ABC News' Janice McDonald contributed to this report.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the COVID-19 infection rate in the state was 0.66% as of Sunday, the lowest since the start of the pandemic.

"It is a great day," Cuomo said at Monday's press briefing, noting that the state has now had an infection rate under 1% for more than two weeks.

However, the western part of the state, including the Buffalo region, has seen an uptick in cases and the infection rate, he said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that it has granted emergency authorization for the first antiviral surface coating approved for use to continuously protect against the virus that causes COVID-19 with a single application.

The product, SurfaceWise 2 from the Texas-based company Allied BioScience, is now approved for use by American Airlines, the Texas Methodist Health Group and at certain locations of the Texas-based clinics Total Orthopedics Sports & Spine.

"This is, I believe, a major game-changing announcement for our efforts to combat coronavirus and COVID19," EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said on a call with reporters Monday morning.

While the product is intended to deactivate the virus on surfaces between routine cleanings for up to seven days, Wheeler said it’s not supposed to replace frequent cleaning with disinfectants, hand washing, wearing masks or social distancing. He also said that the EPA did not find any adverse health risks from coming in contact with the product on a surface, though the National Institutes of Health has found the main ingredient, quaternary ammonium, can be an irritant and exacerbate asthma.

ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.

The University of Hong Kong claims it has documented the world's first case of COVID-19 reinfection.

The university made the announcement in a press release Monday, revealing findings from its study of an "apparently young and healthy patient" who had a second episode of COVID-19 infection which was diagnosed more than four months after the first episode. A team of researchers showed that the genome sequence of the virus strain in the first episode of COVID-19 infection is "clearly different" from that of the virus strain found during the second episode of infection, according to the press release.

Last week, the World Health Organization said there were over 75,000 COVID-19 sequences identified and that they would need to see evidence of individuals who were infected by two different sequences in order to prove reinfection.

There are dozens of studies on COVID-19 immunity being conducted around the world. So far, WHO officials say they have learned that people do develop an immune response to the virus, but it's not completely clear yet how strong that response is and for how long it lasts.

"What we understand from the press release is that this 'may' be an example of reinfection," Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, WHO's COVID-19 technical lead and an infectious disease epidemiologist, said at Monday's news briefing in Geneva.

"It's very important we document this and in countries where sequencing can be done that would be very, very helpful," she added. "But we need to not jump to any conclusions, even if this is the first documented case of reinfection."

ABC News' Christine Theodorou and Karson Yiu contributed to this report.