Tourists. So are you ready to get away . This is a notable night for all of us. Exactly six months ago our lives changed. We were ordered to shelter in place. Among the questions now, are we even halfway even at the Halfway Point of this pandemic . And are we ready to loosen up and get on a flight out of town . Nbc bay areas Sergio Quintana is at sjc with the story. Sergio. Reporter traffic officers here say San Jose International has been getting pretty busy in the mornings and evenings. More people are flying, but theres still a lot to consider before booking a ticket. This is the first flight for this family since the start of the pandemic. Theyre making a short hop to palm springs. Its just far enough to get away from home. When the smoke started happening with all the fires, we couldnt go outside and enjoy it, so we said lets go somewhere where air is fresh so we can get out and enjoy the sun. Reporter her son is playing in a Golf Tournament there, so they decided to fly the whole family. There was a lot of planning including masks, hand sanitizer, and hotel cleanliness. If you can deal with wearing a mask for more than five hours on a plane, hawaii is starting a new travel program. Enabling travelers to avoid quarantine if they take the test within 72hour period prior to their arrival and test negative. Reporter the state is working with cvs and Kaiser Permanente to administer the tests here for a fee the travelers will pay. But there are a couple of catches. Visitors can only stay on the island of oahu and most Tourist Attractions are still closed. If youre planning a flight to other parts of the country, there is some good news. California infection rates are dropping, so strict quarantine requirements are easing. And if you plan to travel to most other countries, good luck. Croatia and europe and like i said, turkey, but the rest is not accepting u. S. Pass ports. Ta tee hi, maldives, most of the caribbean. Reporter christina is a travel expert and expert. She said most countries that do accept u. S. Travelers have different rules to enter so do your research. Sergio quintana, nbc bay area news. Maybe just a staycation. Thank you, sergio. This is disheartening. One of the most beautiful places in the world, its in our own backyard but smoked in. Yosemite National Park shut down this evening. Heres why. The air quality index was in the 700s late today. As of right know, its nearly 500. For some perspective, last week much of the bay area was in the 200s. Take a look. A dark gray blanket of smoke has engulfed the National Park. The smoke is coming from the creek fire burning nearby in fresno county. Yosemite will remain closed through the weekend. Thats tough to see. Jeff ranieri is with us. Jeff, were crossing our fingers, hoping that smoke doesnt come back to the bay area. What are you seeing . It looks like smoke for us would be coming from the north as we head through this weekend. Down in yosemite, you know, a really astonishing sight were seeing right now. The same wind thats clearing us out in the bay area and at the coastline is pushing all of this smoke right up against the Higher Elevations and really kind of just damming it in and just trapping it all there throughout yosemite. So as we get a closer look right now, we are still reading hazardous right through yosemite National Park. Those are cameras from earlier today, and you can see how poor the visibility was. We had reads ranging from 600 to 906 at the peak of that poor air quality. Some of the worst readings ever, 999 in new delhi. So we werent far away from that today. Heres the interesting thing. We have some tropical moisture off to the south and some showers that are trying to develop in the yosemite area that would help the air quality. We have a brandnew update on the air quality. Were going to share that information with you coming up in about 15 minutes. Ive got new information on what we do think will happen for this weekend and the smoke. Raj. The weekend is almost here. Well see you shortly, jeff. You can check the aqi in your neighborhood. Just put it your city and youll see the number. Weve posted the link at nbcbayarea. Com. Heres an odd and dangerous crime. An ambulance was stolen with the medics still in the back. It happened in San Francisco in the tenderloin around 3 00 a. M. The medics were treating a patient when a man jumped into the drivers seat and drove off. One of the medics jumped into the front seat and forced that man to pull over. Thankfully they were able to flag down police officers. Partners at San FranciscoPolice Department acted swiftly and were able to safely take this person into custody. Charges on this individual are fort coming but this person is in custody and is no longer a threat. The patient and the paramedics are okay. A possible hate crime in San Francisco. Another apparent attack on an armenian church. This is the damage left behind. You see the boarded up windows and a charred roof. This is saint gregorys church in laurel heights. It started just after 4 00 a. M. Were told a lot of archives and hold handwritten records were damaged. Some photos there as well. The pastor says sheas shocked a this act of violence. Its devastating to see that there are minorities that they try to destroy the piece of our beautiful city San Francisco. The fire is just the latest in a string of attacks on armenian sites. In july, the kvz Armenian School in the city was vandalized. We mentioned this is exactly the sixmonth mark when the coronavirus essentially crippled our way of life. March 17th, businesses shut down. Hospitals were filling up with covid patients, and we were forced and forced ourselves to stay at home. Since then, our region has seen 98,000 confirmed cases, 8. 2 million californians have filed for unemployment. B. A. R. T. Ridership has fallen 94 . San francisco restaurant sales are down 90 . But not everything has declined. San josebased zoom has seen its stock rise 350 . Grocery stores and Home Improvement stores also seeing record sales. What about a vaccine . Today moderna and pfizer revealing their game plan. Pfizer hopes to have trial results by the end of october. Thats next month. For its results in november orl receive billions of dollars of taxpayers money for developing a vaccine. We care deeply that this vaccine is trusted by the public, by clinicians and nurses around the country so it is used. It would be of course a big waste if we worked so hard to get a vaccine to work and people dont trust the safety. A third company, astrazeneca, still hasnt explained why its vaccine trials were paused for safety concerns and why theyve restarted in the uk but not the u. S. The most optimistic timeline suggests that some americans could begin receiving Covid Vaccine shots late this year. Mass vaccinations are likely, though, next summer and into next fall. Well, this is the final week of summer, and that means flu season is right around the corner. A flu season like never before. Two viruses colliding, making everything even more confusing. They both have similar symptoms. So whats the guidance from medical experts . Heres nbc bay areas cheryl hurd with some answe you cant afford to have flulike symptoms. So im afraid of getting the flu and having everybody think you have covid. Reporter john explaining the problem in one sentence cough, headache, and fever, all symptoms of the flu and covid19. Experts say flu season is going to be confusing for everyone. Potentially sorting out the symptoms of covid19 from influenza can be problematic. Again, thats where Molecular Testing really can play a big role. Reporter testing will play a big role in calming fears this year. You might wonder if you have a temperature or headache, what should you get tested for . I would recommend certainly now because of the fact that were still seeing a lot of covid19 circulating in many areas in the united states, that people certainly get tested for covid19. Reporter that doesnt mean you should ignore getting tested for the flu. Shot . Reporter doctors say its not too early to getouont wantg covid. It makes you more susceptible. Reporter Santa Clara County is making it convenient by offering free flu shots at the county fairgrounds from 9 00 to 4 00 on tully road. The fact that the Covid Vaccine is not available yet, getting a flu shot according to doctors is an important protection you should take. Cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. Tonight we continued our conversation on race in america. We spoke to the mother and uncle of oscar grant. Grant was shot and killed by a b. A. R. T. Police officer on new years day in 2009. For more than a decade, grants family has pushed for legislation and change to hold police more accountable. The power of the police to use deadly force is one of the most significant spro responsibilities we can give any public official. That responsibility got to be guided by common sense legislation to simply protect human life and human rights. The death of oscar grant was something that we covered extensively and we still do. Marcus washington and Jessica Aguirre hosted our special tonight. You can join the conversation right now by heading over to our website, nbcbayarea. Com and click race in america in the top left hand corner. Still ahead, it could be a gamechanger, but its going to cost you. The new covid test that you can take home. And burning man needs help, as in money. The website that was Just Launched today after the pandemic shut down the popular festival. Im chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. I have a critical update on the smoke forecast for this weekend. Brandnew fresh data. Ill have that for you in what we could see this weekend in about eight minutes. Give you my world how can i, when you wont take it from me you can go your own way go your own way your wireless. Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. We are fewer than 50 days until the election. Tonight President Trump was in the battleground state of wisconsin. Thats a state he narrowly won in 2016. In the nearly 90minute speech the president hit many familiar talking points, touting his law and order message and promising a vaccine by the end of the year. We will deliver a safe and effective vaccine before the end of the year, and it could be very, very soon. Youve been seeg wheing where i going. Tomorrow President Trump will hold a rally in minnesota. In pennsylvania this evening, a different kind of town hall with joe biden. Youre seeing this. A drivein town hall. 35 cars were parked all around the stage. Biden then went after President Trump repeatedly over the president s handling the coronavirus. He called mr. Trumps downplaying of the pandemic, quote, criminal, and said the Trump Administration is totally irresponsible. The idea that youre going to not tell people what youve been told, that this virus is incredibly contagious, seven times more contagious than the flu. You breathe the air. You get it sucked into your lungs. What has he done . The president said he downplayed the virus because he didnt want to cause a panic. Biden also weighed in on Foreign Policy issues. He described russia as an opponent but declined to use the same word when asked about china. He instead called china a competitor and pledged to improve trade policy with china. Well, San Franciscos ongoing public Corruption Scandal just expanded again today. Federal prosecutors charged the president and Vice President of an oaklandbased contractor called proven management. Theyre accused of bribing San Franciscos former public works director to help get a contract at the port of San Francisco. The feds claim the two men provided mohammed nuru, who you see there, with lavish dinners and other benefits worth more than a quarter of a million dollars. In a statement to their employees, the executives denounced the charges as entirely unfounded, saying the firm won the port contract because they had the best bid. San francisco supervisor matt haney was clearly frustrated today to see more corruption charges. The city has a long way to go because this type of behavior and how extensive it was was clearly done flagrantly and people need to have faith that its not happening anymore. The u. S. Attorneys office has now charged eight people with corruption directly related to the citys Public Works Department and says its investigation is not yet over. Burning man needs help in a big way. Hit hard by the pandemic, organizers of the famed festival launched a Fundraising Campaign for next years event. The goal is to raise 1. 5 million by the end of this october. At lthan 20,000. The annual burning man event 80,000 people to the remote site just a couple hours north of reno. Well, all this week were sharing clips from our new season of derailed. Thats our Digital Series all about b. A. R. T. For more than five months now, ridership on b. A. R. T. Has been down about 90 . So whats keeping passengers off the trains . Heres our senior investigator bigad shaban. My name is cory. Ive been riding b. A. R. T. Regularly for probably about 10 to 11 years. The most endangered i felt one morning was catching a train. It was the first train out of the yard, and a huge guy got on the train with me. He was probably at least 6 1 2, if not 7 feet tall. He was gigantic. He had no shirt on. He had just sweat pants on, and he had a club. He had a club with him that was about this big, about this big around. This was not a baseball bat. It was a club. A club . It was a club. And he was hitting it like this, like he would a baseball bat. He was hitting it, and he was pacing up and down my train. And everyone just froze, and we were just like we didnt know what to do because you cant get up and hit the intercom if that guy is on your train with a club because you can quickly become a target. What was going through your head . Tried to remain invisible. After hitting all of our seats a number of times going up and down the aisle with the club, then he went over to the double doors, started just hitting his head. I mean i thought he i mean he was hitting it hard enough to crack it. Banging his head along the glass . Correct. Then he comes literally right next to me and goes like this, just drops to the ground, into full body pushups and did 50 to 70 fullbody pushups, perfect form, and i maean we just didn know what to do. So this guy whos shirtless who comes on with a club then just starts doing pushups on b. A. R. T. . Correct. How did it end . He eventually got off the train. So i dont know where he went. I dont know if he got on another train or if he left the station. I dont know. But we were just very relieved. I mean what do you expect . You dont know what to expect. Thats the problem. You can watch seasons one and two of derailed on our app, our youtube channel, apple tv, and nbcbayarea. Com derailed. Lets bring in jeff ranieri as we head in toward friday. And you threw that out there that we might getting smoke back in the area. That piqued everyones ears. What have you got . I know. Thats really the last thing we all want to hear about, but i do want to give everyone the Early Warning on this smoke for this weekend. Weve been talking about the chance, but it does look like that i at the setup right now. We have a lot happening. Complicated weather pattern, but im here to break it down for you. We have this area of low pressure to the north. This is going to bring some rain to the pacific northwest. Also cooler temperatures off tomorrow, and had is what we have to thank for the smoke moving off towards the east. Its been so slowmoving that its helped to give us just about three days of this better air. Off towards the south we have some tropical moisture. Its leftover remnants of what was once depression corinna. Its pushing in some humidity, slight chance of some lightning and also the possibility of some storms for the Central Valley right over to yosemite. Now, any kind of rainfall would help yosemite and that horrible air quality. You can see at 7 30 in the morning, we have that fog from the north bay to the south bay with some spotty drizzle to start and those storms over the sierra. As we head through the afternoon, well get some sunshine here but notice how close that rainfall is here to gilroy and then of course over yosemite. So well have a close eye on that radar for you tomorrow. Right now our chances are slim, but it is just so extremely close. Well keep that chance of some storms as we head through tomorrow night over the sierra as well. Temperatures to start tomorrow, kind of on the cool side. Some nice, clean, crisp area to start. 57 in the trivalley. 60 in the south bay. Remember that possibility of drizzle for the east bay, San Francisco, and the north bay with that fog rolling back in. That system i mentioned dropping our temperatures 5 to 10 degrees tomorrow so it should be noticeable to you. Instead of those upper 80s, were down to 79 in livermore, 75 san jose. 74 in palo alto. Up to santa rosa, 76. 60s at our coast. Air quality tomorrow will be good to moderate, so no issues there. So lets move it on to the smoke model data. The first thing im going to fade on here is the raw model data. You want to look for the red and the purple colors. You can see tomorrow to the north of us, the smoke stays away. Then down here towards the south of us, the smoke is moving towards the east. Im going to go ahead and fade on saturdays smoke forecast and watch how things change. Youll see the smoke plume pushing down over the bay area, so we are again expecting some smoke based on our current data to return as we move through saturdays forecast. Now, the good news next week we should have that cooler ocean breeze return, and that would keep our air cleaner next week. So 60s here in San Francisco. For the inland valleys, we go from 78 tomorrow up to 90 on sunday. Some good things on our side right now, raj. We have some rain in the pacific northwest, and that will help some fire containment. So i dont think at this point the smoke would be as bad as we had last week or the week before, but weve just got to be ready for this possibility this weekend. Good to know. Very good guidance on that. We saw Sergio Quintanas story. Hawaii is reopen. Perhaps we take a little road trip to hawaii, jeff. We need it. Lets do it, yes. All right, jeff. Thank you. Up next, no need to wait in line or schedule an appointment. The new covid test you can take right at home. And happening now, the city of oakley has its first tenant for the contra costa logistics center. Its amazon. The Amazon Fulfillment Center will occupy a 150,000 square foot building in the complex. Once completed, it will include five buildings and provide 2,000 jobs. Were back in a moment. We made usaa insurance for veterans like liz and mike. An army family who is always at the ready. So when they got a little surprise. Two . They didnt panic. They got a bigger car for their soontobebigger family. After shopping around for insurance, they called usaa who helped find the right coverage for them and even some muchneeded savings. That was the easy part. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it easy. If you need a coronavirus test, you can now get one at home. Today Quest Diagnostics announced a new athome test. It costs 119 plus a physician fee of about 9. Once you order it onne, contact confirm that youre eligible for the test. Quest will mail the test kit to you. It includes a swab to gather a sample in your nose. Youll send that sample to quest in a prepaid fedex overnight envelope. Quest tells us you can get the test results in about two days. The company says it will connect you with a doctor via telemedicine to answer any followup questions. You can learn more about that at nbcbayarea. Com, or you can simply use your phone right now to scan that qr code you see it there on the lower left side of your screen and it will take you to an instant link for that at home test. We could have cal and stanford football by halloween. Sources tell nbc bay area the pac12 conference is hoping to start the season on october 31st. There are still a lot of hurdles to be cleared. Each college must comply with local health restrictions, figuring out a Training Camp schedule and approval from School President s and chancellors. If theyre able to play by october 31st, the pac12 would allow each team in the conference to play eight games and be considered for the College Football playoffs. All right. The giants tonight at oracle park. One step closer to the playoffs. Well show you. And thursday night football. Stay with us. The baseball playoffs begin in just a couple of weeks, and the giants are in for now. But theres still games to be played. Oracle park this afternoon. The giants, remember theyre the visiting team even though theyre here at home since this was one of those relocated games from seattle because of the smoke up north. Wilmer flores had the big hit in the seventh inning. Its a tworun triple to put the giants ahead for good. This was a great comeback victory for the giants. They win it 64. The as, by the way, hosting the giants at the Oakland Coliseum for a weekend series beginning tomorrow. The injury riddled 49ers preparing to fly east for the this sunday they play the jets following sunday. The raiders are in las vegas getting ready for their first game in vegas. Monday night football hosting the saints. Thursday night football tonight. The battle of ohio, the bengals and the browns. About 6,000 fans were allowed in the stadium to watch. The browns jumped out to a big lead, and they held on. Baker mayfield to Odell Beckham jr. Nice connection there. 43yard t. D. Cleveland wins 3530. Were back in a moment. Experience the ultimate sports hub. Where you can find games, news and highlights. All in one place, right on your tv. The xfinity sports zone. Use your voice to search every stat, standing and score. Follow the teams you love. And, even get notifications with breaking news alerts and more. So youll never miss an update. With the xfinity sports zone everybody wins. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Click, call or visit a store for details. If sheltering at home has left you craving culture, then get ready. San franciscos museum of modern art, moma, is reopening. The doors open to the public october 4th, and the museum wants you back so much, its offering two weeks of free admission and free parking. Thats a good deal. Advance tickets are required, and theyll be timed so visitors can safely distance. Attendance will be capped at 25 of capacity, and bring your mask because, well, were used to it, and theyre required for everyone over the age of 3. So a really good deal from moma. Thats going to do it on this thursday night. From everyone here at nbc bay area, thanks for watching. Have a great friday