FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Millions more children in the U.S. learned Friday that they’re unlikely to return to classrooms full time in the fall due to the coronavirus pandemic, as officials laid out new details of what lies ahead after summer vacation.
The announcements came as many states, especially in the Sunbelt, struggled to cope with a surge in COVID-19 cases, and governments worldwide are frantically trying to prevent and control fresh outbreaks. In a sign of how the virus is galloping around the globe, the World Health Organization on Friday reported nearly a quarter-million new confirmed cases in a single day.
In the U.S., teams of military medics were deployed in Texas and California to help hospitals deluged by coronavirus patients, and Miami area authorities began stepping up enforcement of a mask requirement.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out strict criteria for school reopenings that makes classroom instruction unlikely for most districts. The rules mandate that students above 2nd grade and all staff wear masks in school.
Texas gave public schools permission to keep facilities closed for more than 5 million students well into the fall. Under the new guidelines, schools can hold online-only instruction for up to the first eight weeks of the school year, potentially pushing a return to campus in some cities until November.
Most Chicago children would return to the classroom just two days a week and spend the other three days learning remotely under a tentative plan outlined by officials from the nation’s third-largest school district. A final decision for fall classes for the district’s more than 300,000 students won’t come until late August.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will override local school districts and require students to spend at least half of their schooling in classrooms. Her proclamation drew immediate criticism from the state teachers union.
Several states have been reporting record numbers of COVID-19, contributing to a surge in the national death rate. The seven-day rolling average for daily new deaths has risen 34 percent from two weeks ago, and the case count in that period shot up 43 percent.
Florida reported 128 new deaths Friday and 11,345 new cases. Texas reported 10,000 new cases for the third straight day Thursday and 129 more deaths. California reported its largest two-day total of confirmed cases, nearly 20,000, plus 258 deaths over 48 hours.
There were signs across the Sunbelt that the virus was stretching authorities’ capacity to respond. The medical examiner’s office in metro Phoenix has gotten portable storage coolers and ordered more to handle an influx of bodies — reminiscent of New York City at the height of the pandemic there.
In Houston, an 86-person Army medical team worked to take over a wing of United Memorial Medical Center. In California, military doctors, nurses and other health care specialists were being deployed to eight hospitals facing staffing shortages.
