New York City schoolchildren returned to in-person classes Monday after a two-week period of virtual learning, while the Los Angeles Unified School District will close down all in-person tutoring and special services on Wednesday amid a growing coronavirus surge.
The Los Angeles school district’s move to remote-only classes will affect about 4,000 students from kindergarten through 12th grade in the nation’s second-largest school district. It also dims prospects that the district will fully reopen before 2021.
On Sunday, Los Angeles County reported over 10,500 COVID-19 infections, a record high.
The New York City school district, the largest in the United States, welcomed elementary school students to in-person classes Monday after a two-week closure amid rising test positivity rates in the city. Middle school and high school, though, will remain remote through the holiday break.
At a press conference Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced he’d be forced to clamp down on indoor dining if state hospitalizations don’t fall within the next week.
As of Sunday, 4,442 New Yorkers were hospitalized for COVID-19, an increase of 124 from Saturday.
If the rate doesn’t fall, Cuomo said, the state will close indoor dining in New York City. The city is currently at 25% capacity for indoor dining locations.
In the rest of the state, capacity is at 50%. The governor said he will cut that rate in half if hospitalizations don’t stabilize. The rules would go into place by region.
To date, nearly 15 million cases and more than 283,000 deaths due to COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S. Nearly 180,200 new cases and 1,347 new deaths due to COVID-19 were confirmed on Monday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
President Trump will sign an executive order ensuring the public can be vaccinated before doses are given to other nations.
The order is set to “reaffirm the position the president has held his entire administration, which is to prioritize America first,” a senior administration official said.
Other countries will be in line for the vaccine “once we’ve ensured we’ve met the needs of the American people,” the official said. “The excess supply will either be donated, or we’ll begin to work with partnering companies and countries to make sure we have the ability to help them.”
Canada’s plan to import 250,000 vaccine doses from the U.S. before the end of the year will not be affected, another senior official said.
The signing is expected to take place during a COVID-19 vaccine summit at the White House on Tuesday, with pharmaceutical companies that have been working to develop, produce, and distribute the vaccine under Operation Warp Speed in attendance. President-elect Joe Biden’s team was not invited to participate.
Trump said his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is recovering quickly after it was announced the former New York City mayor tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.
“Rudy is doing well,” Trump said. “He’s doing very well. That’s another champion. Greatest mayor in the history of New York. What he’s doing now is more important, and he will admit that. He was the greatest mayor. Did a fantastic job, especially when you see what’s going on nowadays there.”
A California sheriff said his office will not be enforcing new coronavirus lockdown orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes told Fox News on Monday that the orders don’t pass the “constitutional test” and that compliance is a matter of “personal responsibility” and not for the sheriff’s department to regulate.
“It’s been a long year for everybody. We know that,” Barnes said. “It’s been very impactful upon all of the businesses and residents of Orange County and California. But I just don’t think that it’s something that falls in line with law enforcement priority.”
A political consulting firm co-owned by Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband received hundreds of thousands of dollars in coronavirus relief funds.
The E Street Group was given $134,800 through the Paycheck Protection Program and $500,000 in Economic Injury Disaster loans, according to public records. Tim Mynett, Omar’s husband as of this year, co-owns the Washington, D.C.-based firm, which has somewhere between 11 and 50 employees.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, announced that high-contact sports such as basketball and football are prohibited due to concerns about COVID-19. The rule applies to high school extracurricular sports activities and competitions, as well as local sports leagues, though not professional or university sports programs.
The United Kingdom will begin administering its coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday.
There are 800,000 doses in the first batch of vaccines the U.K. has received from Pfizer and BioNTech. Since it is a two-dose vaccine, 400,000 people will be vaccinated. In all, the U.K. has ordered 40 million doses from Pfizer.
Nursing home residents, those aged 80 and older, and healthcare workers will be the first to receive the vaccine.
Simon Stevens, the head of Britain’s National Health Service, said it would be a “decisive turning point in the battle against coronavirus.”
Initially, 50 hospitals will serve as distribution hubs for the vaccine. As the U.K. receives more doses, temporary clinics in sports stadiums, libraries, and parking lots will be used to administer the vaccine.
The Swedish government has reversed course in its plan to end the pandemic and announced it would enact new restrictions on movement and alcohol sales, as well as school closures, the Wall Street Journal reported. Policies aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus were previously voluntary, meaning businesses could stay open and the economy would survive. Lockdown opponents have used Sweden as a model for ending the pandemic, arguing that the U.S. should allow businesses to stay open.
