CONCORD, N.H. -- Mental health officials say children are a particular concern during the coronavirus pandemic both as patients and as offspring of providers working from home.

The pandemic has exacerbated existing workforce challenges in behavioral health, Cynthia Whitaker, interim president of Greater Nashua Mental Health, said during an online discussion organized by U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. She and others said many providers are juggling their jobs with overseeing their children’s remote educations.

“We have a lot of staff hitting this breaking point in the fall of, ’Can I actually effectively do my job, talking to someone who’s had a traumatic event, while in the next room my child can’t get on Zoom for math class?’” said Rebecca Throop, vice president of community relations at Seacoast Mental Health Center.

Referrals to mental health centers for children have dropped during the pandemic, Throop said, because teachers haven’t been assessing children. And parents often aren’t equipped, she said.

“When we’re getting children in emergency services for intakes, the severity we’re seeing has skyrocketed,” she said. “Parents are waiting until there’s a crisis and then they bring their kids in, when it’s so obvious you can’t ignore it.”

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

— Scientists say Hong Kong man got coronavirus a second time

— WHO says children aged 6-to-11 should wear masks at times, too

— Trump announces plasma treatment authorized for COVID-19

— Biden says he’d shut down U.S. economy if scientists recommended

— Emails show businesses held sway over reopening plans in U.S. states

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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:

JACKSON, MISS. — An entire fourth grade class in Mississippi is in quarantine after a student and more than half of a school’s fourth grade teachers tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

As students in Mississippi return to school, the state is reporting the most new cases per capita in the past 14 days, according to Johns Hopkins University data analyzed by The Associated Press. The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Mississippi has risen over the past two weeks from 20.71% on Aug. 9 to 40.83% on Aug. 23.

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TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas no longer has any counties free of reported coronavirus cases after another weekend surge pushed its total number for the pandemic past 38,000.

The state Department of Health and Environment said Monday that Kansas saw another 1,545 confirmed and probable cases since Friday, an increase of 4.2%. The total since the pandemic began is 38,401.

The health department reported another seven COVID-19-related deaths, to bring the total to 426. Johns Hopkins University’s count is 427 deaths.

All 105 of the state’s counties have had a confirmed or probable case, according to the health department.

Rawlins and Wallace counties in northwest Kansas had remained the only two without a reported case for more than a month before the department said Monday that they had one case each. Rawlins County has about 2,500 residents and Wallace County, about 1,500.

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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA __ All employees at Clemson University who make more than $50,000 a year will be required to take at least one day off this year without pay as the school deals with lost revenue from the COVID-19 pandemic.

University officials said Monday the more an employee makes, the more furlough days they will have to take. The unpaid days off move closer to five for employees making at least $100,000 a year.

And the university’s highest paid employees with salaries of at least $400,000 — including Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney and university President Jim Clements — have agreed to take a 10% pay cut.

The unpaid days off will start Sept. 1 and affect more than 3,000 Clemson University employees, about half of the school’s payroll.

Clemson estimates it will lose up to $180 million between losing fans at football games, losing fees and tuition from the spring and fall semesters and having to buy protective equipment and renovate classrooms for social distancing and COVID-19 safety.

“That’s a sobering number” in the college’s $1.4 billion budget, said Tony Wagner, Clemson’s executive vice president for finance and operations.

The University of South Carolina is requiring 10 furlough days for employees who make more than $118,000 and 20 unpaid days off for employees making more than $200,000 annually. It’s highest paid sports coaches also took a 10% cut.

The spread of COVID-19 continues to slow in South Carolina, which has reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases in just two of the past 14 days. The state had at least 1,000 new virus cases each day in July and into early August, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- The coronavirus outbreak sent Atlantic City’s casinos plunging to a $112 million second quarter gross operating loss as the gambling houses remained closed for the entire three-month period, according to figures released Monday by state gambling regulators.

That compares with an operating profit of nearly $160 million in the second quarter of last year.

Only one of the nine casinos — the Golden Nugget — reported an operating profit for the quarter, and that was helped by the market-leading internet gambling operation. The casino made $3.1 million, down nearly 69% from a year earlier when it made over $10 million.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy ordered the casinos closed on March 16, and did not allow them to begin reopening until July 2. That more than covers the entire second quarter, the months of April, May and June.

The casinos offered online gambling and sports betting during the quarter, which provided them some revenue during the period their physical buildings were shuttered. The nine casinos collectively reported $121.4 million in net revenue, down nearly 85% from the second quarter of 2019.

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TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — The mayor of Tuscaloosa announced Monday that the city is closing bars for the next two weeks after University of Alabama officials described an “unacceptable” rise in COVID-19 cases that could derail plans to continue the semester on campus.

Mayor Walt Maddox announced the closures along with the end of bar service at restaurants during a news conference with campus officials, who requested the action. Maddox said an unchecked spread of the virus threatens both the health care system and the local economy if students are sent home for the semester to do remote learning.

“The truth is that fall in Tuscaloosa is in serious jeopardy,” Maddox said.

The university did not immediately release case numbers, but school officials said there has been a rapid rise in cases, particularly among fraternities and sororities. The university on Friday had announced a moratorium on student gatherings both on and off campus.

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MIAMI — The Miami Dolphins will allow up to 13,000 socially distancing fans to attend their home opener against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 20, a decision that divided political leaders and upset the visiting coach.

The same plan will be followed for the University of Miami’s home opener against UAB at the Dolphins’ stadium on Sept. 10.

Crowd size will be about 20% of the stadium’s 65,326-seat capacity, with the limitation imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Groups of spectators will be spaced 6 feet apart.

Fifteen of the NFL’s 32 teams have ruled out spectators to start the season. The Dolphins are one of at least eight teams hoping to have a limited number of spectators, and many teams haven’t announced plans.

At a news conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez applauded the Dolphins’ plan and safety upgrades.

DeSantis said the state’s virus numbers are trending in an encouraging direction. But South Florida remains a hot spot, and not all reaction to the Dolphins’ plan was favorable.

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ATHENS, Greece — Greek state school teachers angry at government plans to reopen schools next month have called a protest march in central Athens Tuesday with a string of demands – several of which the education ministry had addressed hours earlier.

The main high school teachers’ union said Monday it wanted fewer pupils per class, as well as extra teachers and classrooms to make that possible.

It also called for free masks and disinfectant, extra staff hirings and seminars on COVID-19 health measures — three things which the government had already said it would do.

The teachers’ union also demanded free and repeated tests for all school staff, the implementation of “all necessary measures to ensure the safety of pupils and teachers,” extra state education funding and a ban on virtual learning using a live link with real classrooms for children unable to attend class.

Hours earlier, the education ministry announced schools would reopen full time on Sept. 7 – with a possible delay if deemed necessary – with use of masks obligatory for schoolchildren and teachers.

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MIAMI — Florida’s coronavirus spread appears to be waning, with several key metrics on the decline.

State-provided statistics on Monday showed that the number of people being treated for COVID-19 in Florida hospitals stood at 4,655 late morning Monday — less than half of the peaks above 9,500 a month ago. A total of 72 new deaths were reported Monday, bringing the seven day average to 123 — the lowest rate in a month.

And the average daily increase in cases over the past week has declined to a level not seen since late June. Because of the declining cases, Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Florida officials announced that the Miami Dolphins football team will allow up to 13,000 socially distancing fans to attend their home opener against Buffalo on Sept. 20.

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MADRID — Fearing an even sharper surge in coronavirus infections with the opening of the school year in September, some Spanish regions moved Monday to impose new measures against the spread of the pandemic, including bans on large social gatherings.

On Monday, when Spain’s Ministry of Health reported figures for the previous three days, the country added more than 19,000 new cases to its epidemic tally of more than 400,000 since the beginning of the pandemic. The figure is the highest in Europe.

Dr. Fernando Simón, the epidemiology expert in charge of Spain’s response to COVID-19 , stopped short of describing the situation as that of a second wave, but admitted that contagion with no clear source of infection is now widespread across the country.

“There is a certain level of community transmission in all Spain, but in some regions is more than in others,” Simón said at a press conference. “The return to school is an opportunity for an easier transmission of the virus.”

The Health Ministry said that 2,060 of the new cases were diagnosed in the past 24 hours, with 34 new fatalities bringing the total death toll of 28,838. The figures are considered incomplete due to insufficient testing at the beginning of the pandemic, while daily data is often corrected as officials rein in a backlog of information reported by Spanish regions.

The Catalonia region announced Monday that it was extending a ban on social gatherings of more than 10 people to the region’s 7.6 million inhabitants. Murcia, in the country’s southern coast and with 1.5 million residents, restricted gatherings to a maximum of six people.

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MEXICO CITY — Millions of Mexican school children returned to classes, but not schools, on Monday as the government attempted to start a new school year despite the challenges of the pandemic.

A system cobbling together online classes, instruction broadcast on television channels and radio programming in Indigenous languages is meant to keep students from missing out in a country already defined by deep inequalities.

As other countries around the world have already discovered, there is no perfect replacement for in-person classes.

The Mexican government enlisted the country’s largest private television companies to dedicate channels to school programming around the clock. Education officials developed schedules giving students at each level multiple opportunities to watch their classes.

Education Secretary Esteban Moctezuma said officials decided to rely on television because it has a far greater penetration that the internet. Still, questions abound about how families, especially those with multiple children, will juggle the classes along with jobs that could force both parents out of the home — often taking their children along with them.

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NEW YORK — Museums across New York and gyms in some parts of the state outside of New York City can reopen starting Monday as coronavirus restrictions are cautiously eased.

Under guidelines announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, museums will face restrictions including timed ticketing and 25% occupancy. New York City museums that will open over the next few weeks include the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Aug. 29 and the American Museum of Natural History on Sept. 9.

Cuomo said gyms and fitness centers could open at 33% capacity starting Monday, but New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city’s gyms would stay closed until at least Sept. 2.

Cultural institutions and gyms across the state have been closed since March when nonessential businesses were forced to shut down to stop the spread of the coronavirus. New York was the epicenter of the U.S.’s outbreak during the spring but has so far succeeded in staving off a second wave of infections.

State health officials have reported an infection rate below 1% every day for more than two weeks.

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ROME — Testing on volunteers of an Italian candidate vaccine began in Rome on Monday at the National Infectious Diseases Institute at Spallanzani hospital.

Ninety people were selected out of some 7,000 who offered to be inoculated with the vaccine, known as GRAd-COV2, in Phase One. The vaccine is produced by ReiThera, a biotech company near Rome.

Half the participants are younger than 55 and half are older than 65. The institute’s health director, Francesco Vaia, told reporters that the aim is to “work well, also quickly, but above all well” in trying to achieve what would be Italy’s first vaccine against COVID-19.

Phase One will last 24 weeks and aims to test safety and tolerance. If all goes well, subsequent phases will involve higher numbers of volunteers and will also be conducted abroad, likely in Latin American countries, which currently are much harder hit by the coronavirus pandemic than Italy.

“Having an Italian vaccine means not being a slave or servant of other countries which will say ‘me, first,’’’ said Giuseppe Ippolito, Spallanzani’s scientific director.

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JERUSALEM — An Israeli Cabinet minister has tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Blue and White party on Monday confirmed the positive test of Pnina Tamano-Shata, the minister for immigrant absorption. It said two other Cabinet ministers and a lawmaker went into protective isolation due to possible exposure.

After moving quickly to contain the coronavirus last spring, Israel appears to have eased its lockdown restrictions too soon and is now battling a sharp spike in cases.

The country is coping with nearly 22,000 active cases and has reported 839 deaths.

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