Members of the Trump administration tasked with responding to the coronavirus pandemic are working aggressively to reopen schools in the fall.
President Trump began the day focusing on reopenings, saying that he disagreed with current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance and threatening to cut off funding to schools.
In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2020
“I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools,” he said. “While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!”
Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC director, said Wednesday that he wanted “to make it very clear” the agency guidance is meant to help schools reopen and should not be used “as a rationale to keep schools closed.”
“We are prepared to work with each school, each jurisdiction to help them use the different strategies that we proposed that help do this safely, so they come up with the optimal strategy for those schools,” he said at the Education Department Wednesday.
Vice President Mike Pence told reporters Wednesday that the CDC would release updated guidance next week to assist school districts in constructing reopening plans hours after.
“The president said today we just don’t want the guidance to be too tough,” Pence said. “That’s the reason why, next week, CDC is going to be issuing a new set of tools, five different documents that will be giving even more clarity on the guidance going forward.”
Some of the CDC guidelines include spacing desks at least 6 feet apart “when feasible,” closing cafeterias and playgrounds with shared equipment, and separating each child’s belongings from others’ items. School districts are still grappling with how they will safely reopen schools as the coronavirus pandemic persists, having infected more than 3 million people in the United States and killed over 132,000 people.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that New York City’s more than 1,700 public schools will take a hybrid approach to reopening in the fall with a blend of in-person and remote learning.
Students will be in school two to three times per week, and class sizes will be limited to maintain social distancing protocols. Students will attend classes remotely when they are not in school. Students and staff will be required to wear face masks, and schools will undergo deep cleaning regularly. Cafeterias, gyms, and other large spaces may serve as additional classroom space to limit the number of students in a single classroom.
Sun Belt states continue to show high rates of new daily coronavirus cases. Arizona has confirmed 108,614 cases, with more than 3,520 new cases and 36 more deaths since Tuesday. The state health department reported on Sunday that the rate of positive coronavirus tests had reached 25%. Florida has 223,783 cases, with 10,044 since Tuesday. Texas has 210,585 cases, an increase of about 9,800 since Tuesday. As of Wednesday, 2,715 people in Texas had died.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner canceled the state Republican National Convention, which was set to begin next week, the Texas Tribune reported. Southeast Texas is experiencing an exceptionally severe coronavirus outbreak. On Tuesday, a record 3,851 people were hospitalized for the coronavirus in the Houston region, exceeding normal intensive care capacity.
“These are some very serious times,” Turner said Wednesday. “Simply, the public health concerns outweighed anything else.”
Trump’s Tulsa rally in late June “likely contributed” to a recent spike in coronavirus cases, Tulsa City-County Health Department Executive Director Bruce Dart said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
“In the past few days, we’ve seen almost 500 new cases, and we had several large events just over two weeks ago, so I guess we just connect the dots,” Dart said.
Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed new cases on Monday, a one-day record high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday. By comparison, during the week before the June 20 Trump rally, there were 76 cases on Monday and 96 on Tuesday.
The Ivy League placed all varsity sports on hold until January, becoming the first NCAA Division 1 league to cancel fall football. Basketball and hockey seasons will also be pushed to spring 2021.
United Airlines, which received economic relief funds as part of the $2 trillion CARES Act, announced Wednesday that it may furlough nearly 36,000 employees, nearly 40% of its workforce, in October, the Washington Post reported.
“The reality is that United simply cannot continue at our current payroll level past October 1 in an environment where travel demand is so depressed,” the airline said in a memo sent to employees. “And involuntary furloughs come as a last resort, after months of companywide cost-cutting and capital-raising.”
