PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced a curfew to be imposed on the Paris region and other major urban centers, to curb a rapid resurgence of the coronavirus.

The curfew will require people to stay home between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., Macron said. It will begin Saturday and last for at least four weeks. The cities included are Paris, Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier, Lille, Rouen and Saint-Etienne.

“Our goal must be to reduce private contacts, which are the most dangerous contacts, which is to say the moments when there’s a little slackening,” Macron said, in an interview with journalists broadcast live on French television.

France has seen a steady rise in new coronavirus infections since August, undermining progress made against the virus during a strict two-month lockdown in the spring.

The government has gradually imposed new restrictions, such as limits on restaurant capacity and hours of alcohol sales in hotspot areas.

Paris had been largely spared those measures, but alarms were raised on Saturday after the country recorded nearly 27,000 new cases in the previous 24-hour period, a record for France during the pandemic, with a worrying number of infections concentrated in the capital.

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Nick Saban, Alabama AD both test positive for COVID-19

Alabama football Coach Nick Saban and athletic director Greg Byrne have tested positive for COVID-19, four days before the Southeastern Conference’s biggest regular-season showdown.

Both said their tests Wednesday morning came back positive. The second-ranked Crimson Tide is set to face No. 3 Georgia on Saturday, and may be without their iconic 68-year-old coach.

“I immediately left work and isolated at home,” Saban said.

Saban said in a statement he has experienced no coronavirus symptoms and took another PCR test to confirm his diagnosis. Saban directed Alabama football practice from home as the No. 2 Crimson Tide prepare for No. 3 Georgia this weekend. Offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will lead the team in Saban’s absence.

Alabama’s announcement came as coronavirus cases have affected multiple Southeastern Conference football programs and postponed two games previously scheduled for this Saturday.

Early this week, the SEC postponed Missouri and Vanderbilt’s scheduled game because of coronavirus cases within Vanderbilt’s program, and early Wednesday afternoon, the conference postponed LSU’s game against Florida because of a similar situation within the Gators’ team. Both games are now scheduled to be played Dec. 12.

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Barron Trump was positive for COVID, now negative, first lady says

WASHINGTON — Melania Trump says her 14-year-old son, Barron, had tested positive for the coronavirus but has since tested negative.

The White House initially said he had tested negative, after both of his parents tested positive earlier this month.

The first lady said Wednesday that subsequent testing showed Barron had also come down with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

He has since tested negative, she said, as have both she and President Trump.

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NFL cancels Pro Bowl, citing virus fears

NEW YORK  — The NFL has canceled next January’s Pro Bowl scheduled for Las Vegas.

During an owners meeting held virtually on Wednesday, the league opted to call off the all-star game, hoping to replace it with a variety of virtual activities. The NFL needs flexibility in January in case it needs to move regular-season games to that month because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The league will work closely with the NFLPA and other partners, to create a variety of engaging activities to replace the Pro Bowl game this season,” the NFL said in a statement.

The Pro Bowl, set for Jan. 31, a week before the Super Bowl, has lost much of its attractiveness in recent years. Many of the chosen players decided not to participate, and, naturally, players from the two Super Bowl teams don’t go.

If there is a Pro Bowl in 2022, the 32 owners voted to return it to the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

A fan vote for Pro Bowl rosters still will be held, beginning Nov. 17. The rosters will be announced in December. Players, coaches and fans vote for the Pro Bowl.

Worries about a virus vaccine grow and experts plan extra scrutiny

Facing public skepticism about rushed COVID-19 vaccines, U.S. health officials are planning extra scrutiny of the first people vaccinated when shots become available — an added safety layer experts call vital.

A new poll suggests those vaccine fears are growing. With this week’s pause of a second major vaccine study because of an unexplained illness — and repeated tweets from President Trump that raise the specter of politics overriding science — a quarter of Americans say they won’t get vaccinated. That’s a slight increase from 1 in 5 in May.

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found only 46 percent of Americans want a COVID-19 vaccine and another 29 percent are unsure.

More striking, while Black Americans have been especially hard-hit by COVID-19, just 22 percent say they plan to get vaccinated compared with 48 percent of white Americans, the AP-NORC poll found.

“I am very concerned about hesitancy regarding COVID vaccine,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a vaccine specialist at Vanderbilt University who says even the primary care doctors who’ll need to recommend vaccinations have questions.

“If the politicians would stand back and let the scientific process work, I think we’d all be better off,” he added.

The stakes are high: Shunning a COVID-19 shot could derail efforts to end the pandemic — while any surprise safety problems after one hits the market could reverberate into distrust of other routine vaccines.

On top of rigorous final testing in tens of thousands of people, any COVID-19 vaccines cleared for widespread use will get additional safety evaluation as they’re rolled out. Among plans from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Texting early vaccine recipients to check how they’re feeling, daily for the first week and then weekly out to six weeks.

Any vaccine before Election Day is extremely unlikely. Over Trump’s objections, the Food and Drug Administration issued clear safety and effectiveness standards that shots must meet — and Commissioner Stephen Hahn insists career scientists, not politicians, will decide each possible vaccine’s fate only after all the evidence is debated at a public meeting.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, says that should be reassuring because it means scientists like himself will see all the evidence.

“So the chances of there being secret hanky-panky are almost zero, because everything is going to be transparent,” he told The AP.

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New stimulus deal unlikely before election, Mnuchin says, though talks with Pelosi continue

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that a new economic relief bill is unlikely before the election, suggesting that Democrats are unwilling to give President Donald Trump a victory.

“I’d say at this point getting something done before the election and executing on that would be difficult, just given where we are,” Mnuchin said during an event hosted by the Milken Institute’s Global Conference.

Asked whether Democrats are unwilling to make a deal because they don’t want to give Trump a win three weeks before the election, Mnuchin replied: “I think that definitely is part of the reality. That’s definitely an issue.”

“But the president is very focused on when he wins we will need to do more. So that’s part of the reason to continue to work on this,” the treasury secretary added. “The clock will not stop.”

Mnuchin made his comments after an hour-long conversation he had Wednesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The two have been negotiating for a couple of weeks despite the long-shot prospects for success. Trump on Wednesday called for a deal in a Twitter post, urging negotiators to “Go big or go home!!!”

Mnuchin made Pelosi a $1.8 trillion offer on Friday that she rejected as inadequate in many respects, including the administration’s avoidance of specifics about a national coronavirus testing strategy.

Pelosi’s spokesman, Drew Hammill, tweeted Wednesday that Pelosi and Mnuchin had a “productive” conversation and would speak again Thursday.

“One major area of disagreement continues to be that the White House lacks an understanding of the need for a national strategic testing plan,” Hammill wrote. “The Speaker believes we must reopen our economy & schools safely & soon, & scientists agree we must have a strategic testing plan.”

Mnuchin and Pelosi have agreed on some areas, including a new round of $1,200 stimulus checks, but have remained far apart on funding for state and local aid, child care and unemployment insurance, and continue to argue over specific language in some areas. Democrats also oppose liability protections the administration wants in any deal.

Mnuchin criticized Pelosi’s focus on a comprehensive deal, saying should act immediately to help specific sectors, such as airlines that have begun mass furloughs after federal aid expired at the end of September. Pelosi and Mnuchin briefly discussed a stand-alone airline-aid bill last week, but Pelosi then rejected that idea amid a backlash from some unions and Democrats questioning why only airlines should get help.

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World Bank approves $12 billion to finance virus vaccines, care

The World Bank has approved $12 billion in financing to help developing countries buy and distribute coronavirus vaccines, tests, and treatments, aiming to support the vaccination of up to 1 billion people.

The $12 billion “envelope” is part of a wider World Bank Group package of up to $160 billion to help developing countries fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the bank said in a statement late Tuesday.

The World Bank said its COVID-19 emergency response programs are already reaching 111 countries.

“We are extending and expanding our fast-track approach to address the COVID emergency so that developing countries have fair and equal access to vaccines,” said the bank’s president, David Malpass, said in the statement.

“Access to safe and effective vaccines and strengthened delivery systems is key to alter the course of the pandemic and help countries experiencing catastrophic economic and fiscal impacts move toward a resilient recovery,” he said.

The International Finance Corporation, the private-sector lending arm of the World Bank, is investing in vaccine manufacturers through a $4 billion Global Health Platform, the World Bank said.

Researchers are working on developing more than 170 potential COVID-19 vaccines.

Development and deployment of such preventive vaccines is crucial to helping stem outbreaks of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1 million people and sickened more than 38 million, while devastating economies and leaving many millions jobless.

The world’s richest countries have locked up most of the world’s potential vaccine supply through 2021, raising worries that poor and vulnerable communities will not be able to get the shots. Meanwhile, an ambitious international project to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the world’s poorest people, called Covax, is facing potential shortages of money, cargo planes, refrigeration and vaccines themselves.

Shaky U.S. hospitals risk bankruptcy in latest COVID wave

A grim reality is setting in across the U.S. hospital sector: a surge in coronavirus infections is encroaching while most facilities are still recovering from the onset of the pandemic.

The growing number of cases is threatening the very survival of hospitals just when the country needs them most. Hundreds were already in shaky circumstances before the virus remade the world, and the impact of caring for Covid patients has put hundreds more in jeopardy.

The new coronavirus sidelined profitable elective procedures and pushed up costs to keep patients and staff safe. Meanwhile, hospitals are losing the privately insured patients they depend on as millions of Americans lose their jobs and employer-sponsored coverage.

“It sort of all comes together as essentially a triple whammy,” Aaron Wesolowski, vice president for policy research, analytics and strategy at the trade group American Hospital Association, said in an interview.

More than 215,000 Americans have now died from the novel coronavirus and 7.8 million have had confirmed infections, numbers that set the U.S. apart on the world stage. Though new virus cases fell last month after a summer spike, covid-19 is again on the rise, especially in the Midwest. Thirty-eight states are now considered hot spots, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which considers rising cases, test-positivity rates and new daily cases per million population in its analysis.

The AHA has estimated the pandemic will cost U.S. hospitals more than $323 billion through the end of this year. U.S. hospital revenue totaled about $1.1 trillion in 2018, according to the most recent AHA data available. The industry group is asking Congress for an additional $100 billion and full forgiveness of loans made under Medicare’s accelerated payment program, among other requests for relief.

As many as half of hospitals could be losing money by year end, Wesolowski said, citing a report it released in July from Kaufman, Hall and Associates. That’s up from about a third that were operating at a loss ahead of the pandemic.

Nurses go on strike over protective gear, pay in Connecticut

More than 400 nurses at a Connecticut hospital began a two-day strike Tuesday over what union leaders called low wages and struggles to get enough personal protective equipment.

Dozens of nurses hit the picket line outside the William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich in rainy weather and held signs saying “Nurses on strike for unfair labor practice” and “PPE over profits.”

The strike comes amid a breakdown in contract talks between the nurses’ union and hospital management, as well as rising coronavirus cases in Norwich and other eastern Connecticut communities. The hospital is operated by Hartford HealthCare. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said he’s been in communication with both the union and hospital leaders.

“I’m doing everything I can to remind both parties how important it is we have Backus Hospital going out there … right where the pandemic looks like it’s probably flaring up a little bit,” he said, adding that there should be no issues with nurses obtaining proper personal protective equipment, given the stockpiles that have been amassed. “I’m very hopeful that they’re getting closer to the finish line. Keep those conversations going. We don’t want to wait another day.”

Statewide, the infection rate was 2.4% as of Tuesday, the highest it has been since June. It has been around 7% in Norwich in recent days. The number of people hospitalized statewide climbed by 17 since Monday to 172, and 25 were in New London County, where Backus is located. In contrast, there were 2,000 daily hospitalizations statewide in the earlier days of the pandemic.

“It’s not unexpected, but it’s incredibly unnerving and a little exhausting,” Lamont said of the state’s slowly increasing infection rate.

But he said the state has been bringing in testing to hot spots like Norwich and New London and urging residents to remain vigilant and continue social distancing and mask-wearing. He noted how that worked to bring the rate down in Danbury, where there was a recent uptick in cases.

The Backus Federation of Nurses, AFT Local 5149, and hospital management have been in contract negotiations since June. Unionized nurses voted to authorize a strike last month.

First lady unseen as Trump restarts campaign after COVID-19

WASHINGTON — President Trump and his wife received their positive COVID-19 tests on the same day. He’s already returned to campaigning, but there’s been no public sighting yet of the first lady.

Melania Trump last provided a health update over a week ago after saying her symptoms were mild, and the White House has not indicated when she will make her next public appearance.

What role she will play in the campaign’s final weeks remains an open question as Trump embarks on a schedule of daily rallies through the Nov. 3 election.

“My family is grateful for all of the prayers & support! I am feeling good & will continue to rest at home,” the first lady tweeted Oct. 5, three days after the president announced they both had the disease caused by the coronavirus and that they would quarantine.

“Thank you to medical staff & caretakers everywhere, & my continued prayers for those who are ill or have a family member impacted by the virus,” she said.

Mrs. Trump was last seen Sept. 29 accompanying the president to Cleveland for his nationally televised debate with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Before that trip, she attended a Sept. 26 gathering in the White House Rose Garden that is now believed to have been a “super spreader” event for the virus. The president introduced Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett to scores of guests who sat close together, many without face coverings. Several guests later tested positive for COVID-19.

The first lady’s office provided no update Tuesday on her condition. The president’s campaign referred questions to the White House.

A possible upside for the White House in the positive test results is that they overshadowed the release of audio recordings by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former confidante and adviser to the first lady, in which Mrs. Trump was heard complaining about having to decorate the mansion for Christmas. She also was heard downplaying the conditions in which migrant children were housed in U.S. detention centers after the administration separated them from their families at the Mexico border.

Q&A: How long can I expect a COVID-19 illness to last?

It depends. Most coronavirus patients have mild to moderate illness and recover quickly. Older, sicker patients tend to take longer to recover. That includes those who are obese, or have high blood pressure and other chronic diseases.

The World Health Organization says recovery typically takes two to six weeks. One U.S. study found that around 20 percent of non-hospitalized individuals ages 18 to 34 still had symptoms at least two weeks after becoming ill. The same was true for nearly half of people age 50 and older.

Among those sick enough to be hospitalized, a study in Italy found 87 percent were still experiencing symptoms two months after getting sick. Lingering symptoms included fatigue and shortness of breath.

Dr. Khalilah Gates, a Chicago lung specialist, said many of her hospitalized COVID-19 patients still have coughing episodes, breathing difficulties and fatigue three to four months after infection.

She said it’s hard to predict exactly when COVID-19 patients will return to feeling well.

“The unsettling part of all this is we don’t have all the answers,” said Gates, an assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

It’s also hard to predict which patients will develop complications after their initial illness subsides.

COVID-19 can affect nearly every organ, and long-term complications can include heart inflammation, decreased kidney function, fuzzy thinking, anxiety and depression.

It is unclear whether the virus itself or the inflammation it can cause leads to these lingering problems, said Dr. Jay Varkey, an Emory University infectious diseases specialist.

“Once you get over the acute illness, it’s not necessarily over,” he said.

Panel to study unexplained illness that paused vaccine trial

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Johnson & Johnson executives say it will be a few days before they know more about an unexplained illness in one participant that caused a temporary pause in its late-stage COVID-19 vaccine study.

“It may have nothing to do with the vaccine,” Mathai Mammen, head of research and development for Janssen, Johnson & Johnson’s medicine development business, said Tuesday.

Mammen says they don’t yet know whether the ill study participant received their experimental vaccine or a dummy shot. He says Johnson & Johnson gave information on the case to the independent monitoring board overseeing the safety of patients in the study, as the research protocol requires. It will recommend next steps.

The study of the one-dose vaccine called ENSEMBLE will include up to 60,000 people from multiple countries. The company expects to complete enrollment in the study in two or three months.

Johnson & Johnson isn’t disclosing the nature of the illness, which it learned of Sunday and disclosed Monday night. Such pauses are not uncommon in long clinical studies, as some participants come down with an unrelated illness.

Unlike a study hold imposed by government regulators, a pause is initiated by the sponsor of the drug trial and often can be quickly resolved.

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