The Latest: Shanghai quarantines 186 after case at airport

BEIJING — Authorities in China’s financial hub of Shanghai have quarantined 186 people and conducted virus tests on more than 8,000 after a freight handler at the city’s main international airport tested positive for the coronavirus.

The city government said on its microblog Tuesday that it remains unclear how the 51-year-old man contracted the virus, which has largely spared the sprawling metropolis despite its dense population and strong international links. It says no additional cases have been found.

In China’s northern port city of Tianjin, more than 77,000 people have been tested after a locally transmitted case was reported there Monday. That case was believed to be linked to a cold storage warehouse, reinforcing suspicions that the virus may be spreading to victims from frozen food packaging.

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

— Pfizer says an early peek at its vaccine data suggests the shots may be 90% effective at preventing COVID-19

— Hungary unveils toughest virus measures yet, Portugal enters new state of emergency to fight rising infections

— Belgian health authorities are confident a renewed surge of hospital admissions related to COVID-19 has peaked in the hard-hit country.

— With the campaign over, President-elect Biden is pivoting to fighting the coronavirus pandemic

— Germany says increase in new coronavirus infections appears to be levelling off, too early to talk about a reversal of the trend.

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

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

FARGO, N.D. — North Dakota’s governor says health care workers who have tested positive for the coronavirus but have no symptoms should be allowed to stay on the job as part of an effort to ease the stress on hospitals and medical personnel dealing with the pandemic.

Gov. Doug Burgum said Monday the CDC allows such personnel to keep working as long as they take precautions.

Burgum says leaders from the six major hospitals in the state will meet daily to discuss hospital space and staffing, with the likelihood of shifting personnel among them. Some hospitals are suspending some elective surgeries.

The governor also announced that every county in the state has been declared at high risk, so businesses will be limited to 25% capacity. He says masks “should be required.”

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HARTFORD, Conn:. — Pfizer’s senior vice-president of drug safety says the timing of the company’s announcement was of progress in its coronavirus vaccine was not related in any way to the presidential election and was made as soon as the efficacy data was ready.

John Burkhardt told reporters Monday that no corners were cut, but the company broke with standard practice and has been manufacturing the vaccine even as the vaccine goes through the approval process.

He says that ”normally, you wouldn’t spend $1 billion to manufacture a product that may not work. You wait and see whether it works and whether it’s safe and then you do the manufacturing. So we did that at risk. That was a decision that was made very early in the process.”

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DES MOINES, Iowa — Two more Iowa prisons are reporting outbreaks of coronavirus infections.

The Iowa Department of Corrections says testing has revealed outbreaks at prisons in Clarinda, where 377 inmates and 16 staff members are positive, and Rockwell City, where 254 inmates and four staff members are positive. The Clarinda prison has about 900 inmates and Rockwell City has 426.

The department released data Friday showing an outbreak at the Anamosa prison and updated numbers show 485 infected inmates of the 982 inmates at the prison. An additional 50 staff members tested positive.

Additional smaller prison outbreaks also have been reported. In total, 1,145 inmates and 103 staff members are positive in Iowa’s prisons.

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TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas has reported another record seven-day spike in coronavirus cases to push the state past 100,000 for the pandemic as officials wrestle with getting more residents to wear masks.

The state health department added 5,920 new confirmed and probable cases to the state’s tally since Friday, bringing the total to 103,553 since the pandemic began. The state averaged 2,047 new cases a day for the seven days ending Monday.

The state also reported 15 more COVID-19-related deaths to bring the pandemic total to 1,081.

Gov. Laura Kelly’s staff, legislative leaders and local officials launched discussions about encouraging mask use before last week’s elections, and officials say those discussions will continue. There is still resistance to mask mandates from many local officials and the legislature.

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Florida officials say one of the major COVID-19 testing sites in the state suffered major damage due to the extensive rain dumped by Tropical Storm Eta in South Florida.

Samantha Bequer, spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said parts of the Hard Rock Stadium’s site were trapped beneath 16 inches of rain. Throughout the pandemic, it has been one of the state’s busiest places for people to get a coronavirus diagnosis.

All of the testing sites in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties managed by the state government closed on Sunday and Monday due to the tropical storm. State officials said testing sites in Lee County also were forced to close due to the storm’s impact. The state has not officially said when it would reopen any of them.

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia has smashed weekly records for confirmed coronavirus cases, while the death toll was pushed higher Monday after more than two dozen previously unreported fatalities were discovered, health officials said.

The state reported 2,418 new positive cases over the six-day period ending Saturday, a 5% increase from the previous week’s record of 2,304 confirmed cases set in a seven-day period. Figures for Sunday were not posted due to a technical glitch, and the record easily could be adjusted higher as daily probable cases are confirmed.

The state has set weekly high marks in four of the past five weeks.

Health officials reported a record 44 virus-related deaths last week alone, and a revision made Monday to include previously unreported virus fatalities brought the state’s death toll to at least 530.

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MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin health officials reported another dip in new COVID-19 infections Monday from a record high over the weekend.

The Department of Health Services reported 4,360 new confirmed infections. That’s up from 4,280 on Sunday but still dramatically fewer than the record 7,065 cases recorded on Saturday. The disease was a factor in another 17 deaths.

The state has now seen 271,770 cases and 2,329 COVID-19-related deaths since the pandemic began in March. As of Sunday the state ranked fourth in the nation in per capita cases over the last two weeks with 69,244 cases per 100,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported that as of Monday afternoon 2,003 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, including 396 in intensive care and 574 on ventilators.

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NEW ORLEANS — The health director for the city of New Orleans notes two possible factors behind the city’s success in avoiding the sort of spike in coronavirus cases that is plaguing other parts of the nation.

Dr. Jennifer Avegno said Monday that relatively warm south Louisiana weather is likely one reason.

Another is the willingness of residents to comply with the city’s requirement to wear masks in public places.

She said mask-wearing has been normal in New Orleans for months and she credits it with saving “countless lives,” while allowing businesses to open.

She spoke as New Orleans officials announced the latest plan to ease virus-related restrictions — including allowing bars to start serving customers indoors, with a 25% limit on capacity.

Avegno warned that residents cannot become complacent, especially as the colder winter months approach.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Top medical officers for some of New Mexico’s largest hospital systems said Monday they’re now at or above normal capacity as the coronavirus pandemic surges across the state.

They said during a briefing that they are seeing the strain on staff and that the current pace of caring for increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients and those hospitalized for other illnesses and trauma will be unsustainable over the long-term.

More than 1,200 additional cases have been reported in each of the last three days as hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise.

Despite having some of the toughest public health restrictions since the pandemic started, New Mexico has been struggling with exponential increases over the past month. The total number of cases for the state is close to topping 55,000, with more than 14% of those being reported in just the last week.

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SALT LAKE CITY — Deeply conservative Utah began a major shift in fighting the coronavirus pandemic Monday, implementing a statewide mask mandate for the first time and planning a dramatic increase in testing.

The move came a couple of days after the presidential race was called for Democrat Joe Biden, but Republican Gov. Gary Herbert said the mask mandate’s timing wasn’t political. He said it was an essential move to avoid disaster with a surge already threatening to overwhelm hospitals ahead of the holiday season.

He says politics has gotten in the way of addressing the crisis effectively.

Utah joins more than 30 other states that have implemented statewide mask orders since the pandemic began.

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. — More than 700 people in Maryland were hospitalized with the coronavirus as of Monday morning, an increase of 52 in a 24-hour period and the highest since mid-June, the state reported.

Of the 707 people in the hospital, the state reported 168 were in intensive care. Hospitalizations have climbed in recent weeks. On Oct. 1, there were 331 people hospitalized.

Gov. Larry Hogan, who warned of a surge in coronavirus cases at a news conference last week, said Monday on Twitter that the state has reached “a critical point” in the fight against COVID-19.

The governor said Maryland’s seven-day positivity rate exceeds 5% for the first time since June 24.

“While our state has been preparing for this fall surge for the past eight months, we cannot afford to let our guard down,” the Republican governor said. “Wear a mask, wash your hands, and watch your distance.”

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ROME — Several regions in Italy, from north to south, are being put under semi-lockdown restrictions by the government, struggling to tamp down a several weeks-long surge in COVID-19 infections.

Governors of the regions said they were informed about the measures, which will take effect Wednesday, including a ban on leaving one’s town except for essential reasons and closing restaurants, bars and cafes except for takeout and delivery orders.

Getting the “orange-zone” designation will be Liguria, a seaside region in northwest Italy; the north central regions of Umbria and Tuscany; the south-central region of Abruzzo; and Basilicata in the southern “instep” of the boot-shaped peninsula.

Last week, four regions became “red zones,” which endure the most severe restrictions currently in Italy, which greatly limit the reasons citizens can leave their homes.

The government on Tuesday was expected to decide whether to make southern Campania, whose chief city is densely populated Naples, a red zone.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. has confirmed more than 10 million coronavirus cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, as infections continue to rise in nearly every state.

The U.S. hit the milestone on Monday.

New daily confirmed cases are up more than 60% over the past two weeks, to an average of nearly 109,000 a day. Average daily cases are on the rise in 48 states.

The U.S. accounts for about one fifth of the world’s 50 million confirmed cases.

U.S. coronavirus deaths are up 18% over the past two weeks, averaging 939 every day. The virus has now killed more than 237,000 Americans.

The Associated Press