[ad_1]
NEW YORK: New York City’s public school district, the largest in the United States, will halt in-person instruction beginning Thursday (Nov. 19), announced Mayor Bill de Blasio, citing rising infection rates for coronavirus there and throughout the country.
The mayor’s decision, revealed Wednesday on Twitter, came as the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 crossed a world record of a quarter of a million lives lost, and when state and local officials across the country were they moved to further restrict social gatherings and business activity to halt the increase. cases and hospitalizations facing winter.
The move was undoubtedly a relief to some teachers, many of whom have expressed fear of being at increased risk of exposure to the highly contagious respiratory virus.
But it will cause difficulties for working parents who will be forced to make new childcare arrangements once again.
READ: US Approves First COVID-19 Test Kit to Give Results at Home
“I could lose my job … I’m caught between the bills and my son, and it’s a tough decision. Really tough,” said Felix Franco, 30, a US Postal Service employee who has been on leave. recovering from COVID-19. since spring and was scheduled to return to work in two weeks.
Franco, who said he has no one else in line to watch his 6-year-old son during the school day, is already behind on his monthly car bill and piling up credit card debt.
New York City, the American epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring, has seen a resurgence of the virus in late fall after a summer hiatus. Schools have been following a tiered and part-time system of classroom instruction since September, with 1.1 million students dividing their school week between in-person and online learning.
But de Blasio said all instruction would return to distance education again Thursday after the rate at which coronavirus tests in the city returned positive increased to a seven-day average of 3 percent, the threshold for suspend face-to-face classes.
READ: Comment: We can’t give up on developing other COVID-19 vaccine candidates now
“Unfortunately, this means that the public school buildings will be closed as of tomorrow, Thursday, November 19, as a precaution,” de Blasio wrote on Twitter. “We must fight the second wave of COVID-19.”
New York City joins other large school districts in cities like Boston and Detroit that recently canceled in-person learning. Over the past week, the Clark County School District, which includes Las Vegas and is the fifth-largest in the United States, and the Philadelphia public school system postponed plans to return to in-person instruction.
HOSPITALIZATION SURGERY
In other regions, the positivity rate for COVID-19 tests and the increase in hospitalizations have skyrocketed even further. Nationwide, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients surpassed 75,000 on Tuesday, setting a record.
Health experts say a greater social mix and indoor gatherings during the holiday season, combined with colder weather, could accelerate the rise, threatening to overwhelm already strained healthcare systems.
The Midwest has become the new epicenter of the crisis in the United States, reporting nearly half a million cases during the week ending Monday.
Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Ohio’s most populous city, Cleveland, ordered residents Wednesday to stay home “as much as possible” through Dec. 17 in response to “a recent unprecedented surge in patients. seriously ill requiring hospitalization “and” concerns with diminishing capacity of local hospital beds. “
READ: Toilet Paper Limits, Empty Shelves Are Back As COVID-19 Rises In US
READ: Biden expects post-Trump progress on COVID-19 stimulus
Government officials in at least 21 states, representing both sides of America’s political divide, have issued new public health mandates this month. These range from tighter limits on social gatherings and non-essential businesses to new requirements for wearing masks in public places.
White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday called the wave of new restrictions an overreach by state and local officials.
“The American people know how to protect their health,” he told Fox News in an interview. “We do not lose our freedom in this country. We make responsible health decisions as individuals.”
The United States recorded 250,140 deaths, by far the highest death toll nationwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally on Wednesday.
“I’m more concerned than I’ve been since this pandemic started,” Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told CNN on Wednesday.
Forty-one US states have reported daily record increases in COVID-19 cases in November, 20 have recorded new all-time highs in coronavirus-related deaths day-to-day, and 26 have reported new spikes in hospitalizations, according to Reuters tally. .
In Washington, pressure for a new COVID-19 relief bill increased in the United States Congress on Wednesday. Senate Democrats also unveiled new legislation to increase the national supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare and other front-line workers.
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
