An umbrella comes in handy for protection from the sun at Oakland’s Lake Merritt.

Good morning, Bay Area. It’s Tuesday, Sept. 6, and the harmful algae bloom that has killed thousands of fish in San Francisco Bay was fueled by nutrients in wastewater. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

The bad news: the scorching temperatures will continue.

The good news: a cooling weather trend will begin Thursday.

“As the ridge weakens, high pressure is still in control, giving the Bay Area clear conditions. A cold front will brush north of the Bay Area. This cooler air mass will bring cooler temperatures to the region by the end of the workweek,” write newsroom meteorologists Gerry Díaz and Michelle Apon.

But until then, the excessive heat warning continues for the interior bay and valley locations through Wednesday, and the inland East Bay will see a maximum high of 110 degrees.

The South Bay could see temperatures peak in the lower 100s, while the North Bay will see highs in the upper 90s and lower 100s today. Highs in the upper 80s are expected for San Francisco and Oakland.

Head to the Chronicle website or our app for the latest live coverage of the heat wave.

• California’s electrical power grid escaped rolling blackouts Monday evening despite intense strain and may also be tested like never before Tuesday.

• Sweltering California could become the first state to rank heat waves.

Paxlovid tablets treat mild to moderate COVID, but some patients experience a rebound of symptoms.

A Chronicle reader who wrote to our Pandemic Problems advice team was recently infected with the coronavirus and qualified for the antiviral treatment Paxlovid, but the person’s doctor didn’t deem it necessary because the reader was otherwise low-risk. But after a long bout of COVID that included a rebound, the reader wonders whether taking Paxlovid would have shortened the duration and severity of the illness.

I fielded this inquiry and spoke to several infectious disease experts, and like many things with COVID, there is no easy or definitive answer about whether Paxlovid would have made a big difference in the reader’s specific case.

What is known, generally, is that people who are older and have medical conditions do benefit from taking Paxlovid, while younger people with or without conditions don’t seem to get much benefit. Read the entire column here.

And if you have a pandemic-related question, please send it to pandemicproblems@sfchronicle.com.

• Opinion: Omicron finally got me after two years of being a COVID hermit. Then, doctors made it worse.

• New COVID booster shot shows “tremendous promise.” Can it prevent the next surge?

HL Peninsula Hotpot & Grill of Burlingame offers Kurobuta pork collar.

The South Bay and Peninsula have seen a slew of new restaurant openings in recent weeks that cover a range of cuisines and options.

HL Peninsula Hot Pot & Grill is open in Burlingame, bringing late night hot pot to the area. The splashy restaurant offers high-end proteins from Alaskan king crab to Angus beef tongue that you cook yourself using the hot pot and grill equipment at each table. Behind a dark marble bar, a robot named Adam mixes cocktails.

Other openings include a Sunnyvale location of popular Los Angeles spicy fried chicken chain Dave’s Hot Chicken, and mochi specialist Mochill in San Jose’s Mitsuwa Marketplace. Here’s the full list of restaurant openings.

• This Napa vineyard looks totally bizarre. Here’s why it could help with climate change.

Grease and scum float in a raw sewage intake tank at the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility in San Jose.

• A pricey fix: Poop and pee fueled the huge algae bloom in San Francisco Bay. Fixing the problem could cost $14 billion.

• “Beaver believer”: Why this underappreciated rodent is one of California’s best chances to fight climate change. Also: One of Bay Area’s favorite camping spots may reopen this year.

• A strong recovery: This S.F. neighborhood saw “dark days” in 2020. Now, it’s one of the areas rebounding the fastest.

• Chronicle analysis: California police officers have killed nearly 1,000 people in six years.

• From Heather Knight: Do San Francisco City Hall politics need to be so toxic? From Joe Garofoli: The front runner in Oakland mayor’s race? There isn’t one.

• Still lagging behind: BART’s GM says the transit system has to be complementary to hybrid work schedules.

• From Justin Phillips: The Black Panther Party’s past is rooted in Oakland. So is its future.

• Better with age: One of San Francisco’s most exotic landscapes is in a park that’s 70 feet above ground.

Left: Aastha Patel practices cricket at a free youth cricket clinic in Morrisville, N.C. Right: Saurabh Netravalkar plays cricket for the Silicon Valley Strikers.

The sport of cricket only has about 200,000 players here, according to USA Cricket. While the sport is mainly tied to the old British Empire, the first international cricket match took place in 1844 in New York City. The sport’s popularity surged in the mid-1800s until baseball took over.

The U.S. joined the International Cricket Council in 1965, but it wasn’t until recent years that the national team became a factor in international competition. And in the Bay Area, the top cricket team known as the Silicon Valley Strikers is part of the Minor League Cricket league, and a cornerstone of the potential future of the U.S. national team.

Now, a venture known as Major League Cricket hopes to bring star players to the U.S. while also developing homegrown talent to showcase. The league will launch in 2023 with six franchises, one of which will be based in the Bay Area, writes Sydney Bauer.

• From Scott Ostler: Oldest living tennis champ, 99, played for the love of the game, not money.

Bay Briefing is written by Kellie Hwang and Anna Buchmann and sent to readers’ email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact the writers at kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com and anna.buchmann@sfchronicle.com.

Kellie Hwang is the engagement reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. Before returning to the Bay Area, she held roles as transportation reporter and trending news reporter at the IndyStar in Indianapolis. Previously, Kellie covered dining news and trends, visual arts, events and nightlife for the Arizona Republic, and freelanced for the former Contra Costa Times. Kellie also serves as co-director of the Asian American Journalists Association Features Forum. She is a University of Washington graduate.