Tourists wearing masks to protect from the coronavirus pass by national flags on the last day of the National Day holidays in Beijing on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020. The eight-day holiday this year, which coincides with the Mid-Autumn Festival, will be a litmus test of whether China's tourism industry can bounce back following the battering it took earlier in the year. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom has tested negative for the coronavirus.

The governor’s office said Newsom was tested on Wednesday after someone in the governor’s office tested positive. The staff member who tested positive had not interacted with Newsom or anyone else who often sees the governor.

The governor’s office said Newsom took the test out of “an abundance of caution.”

Newsom said Wednesday that he has been tested many times and has always been negative. California has reported more than 834,000 coronavirus cases and more than 16,300 deaths.

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

— Washington DC health department asks Rose Garden attendees to get tested

— Paris hospitals on emergency footing as ICUs fill with coronavirus patients

— Am I immune to the coronavirus if I’ve already had it?

— President Trump says he’s ready to hold campaign rallies, credits an experimental drug treatment with helping recovery from COVID-19.

— Coronavirus infections in Ukraine began surging in late summer, hospitals are ‘catastrophically short of doctors.’

— The NFL's Tennessee Titans had another positive test, bringing the team’s outbreak of COVID-19 to 23.

— 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:

BEIJING __ China, which has four coronavirus vaccine candidates in the last stage of clinical trials, announced Friday that it is joining the COVID-19 vaccine alliance known as COVAX.

The country signed an agreement with GAVI, the co-leader of the alliance, on Thursday, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Initially, China did not agree to join the alliance, missing the global deadline to join in September.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement that “we are taking this concrete step to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, especially to developing countries and hope more capable countries will also join and support COVAX.”

The alliance is designed so that richer countries agree to buy into potential vaccines and help finance access for poorer ones. The Trump administration in the U.S. had declined to join the alliance.

The exact terms of the agreement and how China will contribute are not yet clear. .

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HARTFORD, Conn. -- Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House coronavirus task force says she is concerned about the uptick in coronavirus cases in the Northeast.

She said Thursday at the University of Connecticut’s Hartford campus that a “very different” kind of spread is happening now.

She says it’s not happening in the workplace so much because people are taking precautions. She says more people are becoming infected because of indoor family gatherings and social events as the weather cools.

She says that was a lesson learned in the South during the summer when people went indoors for air conditioning.

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BOISE, Idaho -- The number of Idaho residents collecting unemployment dropped for the 22nd consecutive week as the state’s reopened economy continues recovering, while at the same time coronavirus pandemic deaths hit 500.

The Idaho Department of Labor said Thursday that the number of people requesting unemployment dropped 8% from the previous week to 9,144. That’s down from more than 70,000 continuing claims in late April when Republican Gov. Brad Little began reopening the state following his month-long stay-at-home order.

Virus infections and deaths have climbed over those same months. Johns Hopkins University reports that through Wednesday, Idaho had more than 45,000 infections and 500 deaths.

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HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania reported its highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections in more than five months on Thursday, with the governor expressing concern but adding the state is in a much better position now to handle the influx than it was at the beginning of the pandemic.

The Department of Health said another 1,376 people had tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19, the second consecutive day that new infections rose above 1,300. Thursday’s statewide case count was the highest since April 30, when Pennsylvania recorded 1,397 new infections. The average daily number of new confirmed cases is up by more than 36% over the past two weeks, according to The COVID Tracking Project, and the percentage of people testing positive is also trending up.

Health officials cite increased spread among college and university students. Penn State University alone has reported nearly 3,000 positive virus tests at its main campus in State College, and surrounding Centre County currently leads Pennsylvania in the number of infected people per capita.

“I am very concerned” about the spike in infections, Gov. Tom Wolf said at a news conference Thursday, but “we’re at a different place in terms of how we can address it.”

He said hospitals have lots of capacity, the state has plentiful supplies of personal protective equipment, and testing and tracing has been expanded. He also asserted that more people are complying with a statewide mask mandate.

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PHOENIX — Arizona health officials on Thursday reported 863 additional known COVID-19 cases with 10 more deaths, increasing the state’s totals to 223,401 known cases and 5,743 reported deaths amid a recent gradual increase in hospitalizations.

Some COVID-19-related hospitalization metrics as of Wednesday released by the Department of Health Services showed continued higher numbers of inpatient hospitalizations and usage of intensive care beds since lows in late September.

The number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations stood at 728 on Wednesday, up from 468 on Sept. 27 and the most since 752 on Sept. 1. ICU bed usage totalled 156 on Wednesday, up from 115 on Sept. 29 and the most since 168 on Sept. 13.

However, the latest levels remained far below peaks experienced in mid-summer when Arizona was a national hotspot and hospitalizations peaked at 3,517 on July 13.

Meanwhile, seven-day rolling averages of daily new cases and daily deaths in Arizona both decreased in the past two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins University data analyzed by The Associated Press.

The average of daily new cases dropped by 768 on Sept. 23 to 576 on Wednesday as the average of daily deaths dropped from 22 to 12.

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TOPEKA, Kan. — Students are urging Washburn University officials to reconsider their decision to cancel spring break in an effort to minimize COVID-19 transmission.

The Washburn Student Government Association passed a resolution calling on the administration to consider an alternative that would add three “mental health days” to the spring calendar, The Topeka Capital-Journal reports.

The student leaders said they were blindsided by last week’s announcement that students would go through 15 uninterrupted weeks of classes, with finals week one week earlier between May 1 and 7.

“We understand the need for safety, but we can’t sacrifice safety for mental health,” said student body president Victoria Smith.

JuliAnn Mazachek, vice-president for academic affairs, said in an email late last week that spring break was being eliminated to protect the health and safety of faculty, staff and students.

“As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to grow both nationally and in our state, it is incumbent upon the university to design an academic schedule that minimizes opportunity for contraction and transmission of this virus,” Mazachek wrote.

The state Department of Health and Environment reported another 1,244 new confirmed and probable coronavirus cases from Monday to Wednesday to bring the pandemic total to 63,952.

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BATON ROUGE, La. — Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday he’s keeping Louisiana’s current coronavirus restrictions on businesses and activities in place for another month, even though those rules have provoked the ire of Republican lawmakers who convened a special session hoping to undo many or all of them.

At a news briefing focused mainly on the impending arrival of Hurricane Delta, the Democratic governor announced he’s renewed the terms of his pandemic emergency order with few changes and is maintaining the statewide mask mandate through Nov. 6. The restrictions had been set to expire Friday if Edwards didn’t act.

The rules — described as a Phase 3 order — were enacted in September and were loosened from previous orders.

Restaurants, churches, gyms and most other businesses can operate at 75% of their capacity. Sports events such as high school and college football have crowd limits of 25%, which allows 25,000 fans in LSU’s Tiger Stadium, for example. One change in Edwards’ latest rules will allow alcohol sales again in some stadiums.

The virus has killed at least 5,416 people in Louisiana, according to the state health department. About 86% of the deaths have involved people aged 60 or older. The state’s death rate is the fifth highest per capita in the country.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has issued a warning against Ohioans gathering for big events like weddings and funerals, while defending a decision to boost the number of fans allowed to attend NFL games in the state. The governor also said Thursday that even as cases rise in the state, the economy won’t be shut down again. DeWine says 18 counties are considered “red” under the rating system for counties with high rates of the spread of the coronavirus. He says mass gatherings have happened in at least half those counties.

“In one example, there was a wedding where two grandfathers died due to COVID,” the governor said. “Examples like these are absolutely heartbreaking.” He blamed the new spread on people not taking precautions like mask-wearing and social distancing.

“This has just got to stop. These lives are valuable. These lives matter. We can do better than this,” DeWine said.

DeWine is under pressure from bars and restaurants to lift the ban on alcohol sales after 10 p.m., though he hinted Thursday he’s still reluctant to do that. But a few minutes later, he defended his decision to allow the Browns and Bengals to boost the number of spectators from 6,000 to 12,000 at their remaining home games. Each team submitted detailed plans to the Health Department for keeping spectators safe.

That decision was based on letting people “go ahead and live,” DeWine said.

“Allowing some more people to go root for the Bengals, go root for the Browns, is something that people feel very passionately about-—we think they can do it safely,” the governor said.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri on Thursday reported an increase of more than 1,500 confirmed COVID—19 cases and the highest number of hospitalizations for confirmed or suspected cases since the pandemic began.

Data from the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services showed a total of 137,156 confirmed cases and 2,259 deaths since March. That was 1,505 more cases and 23 more deaths than reported Wednesday.

The department also reported 1,344 Missourians were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID--19 cases on Wednesday — up from 1,241 the previous day. The state averaged 1,204.9 hospitalizations in the previous seven days.

One of the largest hospitals in southwestern Missouri has seen a big rise in hospitalizations. CoxHealth spokeswoman Kaitlyn McConnell said the Springfield hospital on Thursday was treating a record 93 COVID-19 patients.

“Because this surge came to the Midwest later than other parts of the country, we were able to prepare by aggressively gathering PPE and expanding our facilities, and are currently managing through this crisis,” McConnell said in an email. “However, we are distressed by the rising number of cases and what they mean in our community. We ask our community, and those across the country, to continue to take preventative measures against the spread of this virus.”

Missouri Hospital Association spokesman David Dillon said the nearly monthlong trend of spiking hospitalizations is troubling, and he noted that many people getting care in regional hubs like Springfield are from smaller towns around those hubs.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An outbreak of the new coronavirus at a Tennessee women’s shelter is forcing about 150 people to quarantine, a spokesman for Nashville’s Metro Public Health Department said Thursday.

A cluster of fewer than 20 people tested positive for the virus at the Nashville Rescue Mission’s facility for women and children, Brian Todd said. The outbreak includes residents and staff. Because those who tested positive were in close contact with other residents at the shelter, the entire facility was placed under quarantine, Todd said.

The Health Department is continuing to monitor the outbreak. The quarantine is set to expire on October 15.

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RAMALLAH, West Bank — Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian official, has been infected with the coronavirus.

The Palestine Liberation Organization announced the news on Thursday.

Erekat is a longtime senior adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas and served as the Palestinians’ chief negotiator in past peace talks.

Erekat has a history of health problems and underwent a lung transplant in the U.S. in 2017.

There have been over 54,000 cases of the coronavirus and 422 deaths reported in the Palestinian-administered areas of the Israeli occupied West Bank.

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UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council has met in its chamber at U.N. headquarters in New York for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the city in March, and despite wearing masks and being separated by plexiglass dividers, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft said “It was so great to be home.”

Germany’s U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, who started lobbying for the U.N.’s most powerful body to resume in-person meetings in its chamber when his country held the council presidency in July, agreed. “The Security Council is coming home, and it was wonderful to be there,” he said.

Like most businesses and organizations, the council was forced to meet virtually because of the pandemic, but the heart of diplomacy is face-to-face contact and as the months rolled by pressure grew to resume in-person meetings.

Heusgen succeeded in getting council members to meet in the much larger chamber for the 54-member Economic and Social Council on several occasions in July, and that practice has continued several times in the succeeding months.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, the current council president who strongly supported Germany’s push for a return to the council chamber, told reporters as he left Thursday’s meeting: “I think everybody was happy to come back home, finally.”

During Thursday’s meeting on Mali some ambassadors took their masks off when they spoke, and others left them on.

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BOSTON — Boston public school teachers announced a legal challenge Thursday to the city’s decision to continue some in-person classes, which they allege is in violation of an agreement that requires all-remote learning if the city’s coronavirus positivity rate rises past 4%.

Mayor Marty Walsh announced Wednesday that the next phase of the schools’ reopening plan would be delayed by a week because the city positivity rate had climbed to 4.1%.

But students who had already returned to the classroom, including those with special needs, would continue with in-person instruction.

The Boston Teachers Union said Thursday that based on a memorandum of understanding, in-person work is now optional for all teachers.

The union also said it objected to a suggestion by Superintendent Brenda Cassellius that teachers could be disciplined for opting not to teach in person.

The mayor’s office said it interpreted the memorandum of understanding differently.

News from © The Associated Press, 2020