Newsom warns most schools could be closed until summer as coronavirus lockdown expands
6 min read
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
Most of California’s schools could remain shuttered for the rest of the school year as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Tuesday.
More than 98 percent of California’s student body — about 6.1 million students — have had their classes cancelled so far, Newsom said. While many school districts have only announced closures for a few weeks, Newsom said it was unlikely that most would open again before their summer breaks in May or June.
“Don’t anticipate schools are going to open up in a week,” he said in a press conference at the state’s emergency headquarters. “It’s unlikely that many of these schools — few if any — will open before the summer break.”
“Boy, I hope I’m wrong, but I believe that to be the case,” based on experts’ assessments of the level of social distancing required to beat back the growing epidemic, Newsom added.
Due to the shutdowns, California has requested a federal waiver that would allow the state government to not require standardized testing this year. Students “already have enough anxiety” as it is, Newsom said.
Beyond schools, the Bay Area’s unprecedented shelter-in-place order expanded to three new counties Tuesday, placing a vast swath of Northern California under virtual house arrest.
Monterey, Sacramento, and Sonoma counties joined the seven others that had already ordered residents to stay home for the next three weeks except for essential activities, leaving highways near empty on Tuesday and shuttering thousands of Bay Area businesses.
The number of coronavirus cases in California had reached 472 statewide as of Monday night, about a 17 percent increase from the previous day, Newsom announced, adding that 11 people had died from the virus in total.
A large portion of the newly confirmed cases were in the Bay Area. Santa Clara County — the hardest hit county in the state — said that its total cases rose to 155 on Tuesday, with 17 new cases and five deaths, while Contra Costa reported a total of 39 and Alameda now at 30. In San Mateo, officials reported 22 new cases, bringing its total to 64.
On a day when the virus reached all 50 states in the country — with one case confirmed in West Virginia, the last holdout — most Northern Californians were watching the news from their homes.
Residents under shelter-in-place orders are allowed to go outside only for “essential” reasons such as to get health care, shop for supplies, assist family members and get exercise. Most businesses are closed, except essential businesses such as supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies and health care facilities. Restaurants statewide are only allowed to stay open for takeout and delivery, Newsom has said.
Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties started the lockdown order on Monday, with officials saying it would last until April 7 and could be extended longer.
Newsom’s prediction about school closures raises the prospect that millions of parents around the region could be going back to work in coming months even as their kids’ schools remain closed.
The governor said he understood the magnitude of what that would mean for the state’s families as a parent himself. On Monday night, he said, he came home to find that one of his daughters had “thrown her bunny rabbit on the floor, her pillows, most of the rest of the bed.”
She was “expressing deep stress and anxiety that she wasn’t in school — I had never heard those words from her,” Newsom said. “I told her, ‘honey, I don’t think the schools are going to open again.’”
Newsom said the state government was in the process of opening two new large hospitals — one in Northern California and one in Southern California — in currently unused hospital buildings. The state is also negotiating with 901 hotels to house homeless people or others suffering from the virus. Those efforts would be funded in part by a new $1 billion appropriation by the legislature that Newsom signed Tuesday.
Even as many businesses were forced to shut their doors, leaving employees worried about the personal financial impact, others were hiring to keep up with new demands caused by the pandemic and the shutdown.
Amazon said it needs to hire 100,000 people across the U.S. to keep up with a crush of orders as the epidemic kept more people at home, shopping online. The online retailer said it will also temporarily raise pay by $2 an hour through the end of April for hourly employees. That includes workers at its warehouses, delivery centers and Whole Foods grocery stores, all of whom make at least $15 an hour. Safeway has said it is looking to hire 2,000 people and SaveMart has said it has 1,000 openings.
After weeks of stock market carnage and warnings from economists that the U.S. could be on the brink of a recession, Americans got some rare good news for their pocketbooks when Trump administration officials said Tuesday that they’d support measures to send checks to people around the country to help mitigate the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin floated the idea of sending every American adult a check for $1,000, and other proposals put forward by Democrats and Republicans in Congress have suggested giving up to $4,500 to every American.
The federal government also pushed back the traditional April 15 deadline to pay taxes owed by 90 days, with Mnuchin allowing individuals to defer up to $1 million of tax liability and corporations $10 million. Taxpayers still have to file their taxes on time, but don’t actually have to pay up for three additional months. In California, State Treasurer Fiona Ma said state residents would be allowed to delay filing their state tax returns until June 15.
Californians also will get a reprieve from the Department of Motor Vehicles, which asked state law enforcement agencies to give people a 60-day grace period on enforcement of driver license and vehicle registration expiration dates, to avoid state residents having to crowd into the department’s offices to deal with their licenses.
Backers of the campaign for a $100 billion “mega measure” to fund big investments in Bay Area public transportation said Tuesday the effort would be put on hold amid the disruptions caused by coronavirus. Faster Bay Area, a campaign asking voters to approve a one-cent sales tax increase that leaders say will pay for transformative public transit projects, is dropping its plan to put the measure on the November ballot and will try for an unspecified future election.
Elsewhere in California, the effects of the virus were being felt far from the hardest-hit urban areas. All hotels and restaurants in Yosemite National Park, including the historic Ahwahnee Hotel, closed Tuesday until at least the end of the month over concerns about virus.
The decision came as the National Park Service also closed Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods National Monument and the Statue of Liberty in New York City on Monday, and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. three days earlier, as the pandemic threatened to devastate America’s tourist industry.
Yosemite officials reported that all park visitor centers, museums and shuttle buses also were closed. The park itself, including roads in and out of Yosemite Valley and hiking trails, remains open.
“They have broken my heart,” said Kurt Zeitler, an Elgin, Texas resident whose vacation plans were cancelled, in a Facebook post late Monday.
Rex Crum, Harriet Rowan, Fiona Kelliher, George Avalos, Nico Savidge and The Associated Press contributed reporting.
from News: Redlands Daily Facts https://ift.tt/2TZ7TJq
Most of California’s schools could remain shuttered for the rest of the school year as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned Tuesday.
More than 98 percent of California’s student body — about 6.1 million students — have had their classes cancelled so far, Newsom said. While many school districts have only announced closures for a few weeks, Newsom said it was unlikely that most would open again before their summer breaks in May or June.
“Don’t anticipate schools are going to open up in a week,” he said in a press conference at the state’s emergency headquarters. “It’s unlikely that many of these schools — few if any — will open before the summer break.”
“Boy, I hope I’m wrong, but I believe that to be the case,” based on experts’ assessments of the level of social distancing required to beat back the growing epidemic, Newsom added.
Due to the shutdowns, California has requested a federal waiver that would allow the state government to not require standardized testing this year. Students “already have enough anxiety” as it is, Newsom said.
Beyond schools, the Bay Area’s unprecedented shelter-in-place order expanded to three new counties Tuesday, placing a vast swath of Northern California under virtual house arrest.
Monterey, Sacramento, and Sonoma counties joined the seven others that had already ordered residents to stay home for the next three weeks except for essential activities, leaving highways near empty on Tuesday and shuttering thousands of Bay Area businesses.
The number of coronavirus cases in California had reached 472 statewide as of Monday night, about a 17 percent increase from the previous day, Newsom announced, adding that 11 people had died from the virus in total.
A large portion of the newly confirmed cases were in the Bay Area. Santa Clara County — the hardest hit county in the state — said that its total cases rose to 155 on Tuesday, with 17 new cases and five deaths, while Contra Costa reported a total of 39 and Alameda now at 30. In San Mateo, officials reported 22 new cases, bringing its total to 64.
On a day when the virus reached all 50 states in the country — with one case confirmed in West Virginia, the last holdout — most Northern Californians were watching the news from their homes.
Residents under shelter-in-place orders are allowed to go outside only for “essential” reasons such as to get health care, shop for supplies, assist family members and get exercise. Most businesses are closed, except essential businesses such as supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies and health care facilities. Restaurants statewide are only allowed to stay open for takeout and delivery, Newsom has said.
Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties started the lockdown order on Monday, with officials saying it would last until April 7 and could be extended longer.
Newsom’s prediction about school closures raises the prospect that millions of parents around the region could be going back to work in coming months even as their kids’ schools remain closed.
The governor said he understood the magnitude of what that would mean for the state’s families as a parent himself. On Monday night, he said, he came home to find that one of his daughters had “thrown her bunny rabbit on the floor, her pillows, most of the rest of the bed.”
She was “expressing deep stress and anxiety that she wasn’t in school — I had never heard those words from her,” Newsom said. “I told her, ‘honey, I don’t think the schools are going to open again.’”
Newsom said the state government was in the process of opening two new large hospitals — one in Northern California and one in Southern California — in currently unused hospital buildings. The state is also negotiating with 901 hotels to house homeless people or others suffering from the virus. Those efforts would be funded in part by a new $1 billion appropriation by the legislature that Newsom signed Tuesday.
Even as many businesses were forced to shut their doors, leaving employees worried about the personal financial impact, others were hiring to keep up with new demands caused by the pandemic and the shutdown.
Amazon said it needs to hire 100,000 people across the U.S. to keep up with a crush of orders as the epidemic kept more people at home, shopping online. The online retailer said it will also temporarily raise pay by $2 an hour through the end of April for hourly employees. That includes workers at its warehouses, delivery centers and Whole Foods grocery stores, all of whom make at least $15 an hour. Safeway has said it is looking to hire 2,000 people and SaveMart has said it has 1,000 openings.
After weeks of stock market carnage and warnings from economists that the U.S. could be on the brink of a recession, Americans got some rare good news for their pocketbooks when Trump administration officials said Tuesday that they’d support measures to send checks to people around the country to help mitigate the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin floated the idea of sending every American adult a check for $1,000, and other proposals put forward by Democrats and Republicans in Congress have suggested giving up to $4,500 to every American.
The federal government also pushed back the traditional April 15 deadline to pay taxes owed by 90 days, with Mnuchin allowing individuals to defer up to $1 million of tax liability and corporations $10 million. Taxpayers still have to file their taxes on time, but don’t actually have to pay up for three additional months. In California, State Treasurer Fiona Ma said state residents would be allowed to delay filing their state tax returns until June 15.
Californians also will get a reprieve from the Department of Motor Vehicles, which asked state law enforcement agencies to give people a 60-day grace period on enforcement of driver license and vehicle registration expiration dates, to avoid state residents having to crowd into the department’s offices to deal with their licenses.
Backers of the campaign for a $100 billion “mega measure” to fund big investments in Bay Area public transportation said Tuesday the effort would be put on hold amid the disruptions caused by coronavirus. Faster Bay Area, a campaign asking voters to approve a one-cent sales tax increase that leaders say will pay for transformative public transit projects, is dropping its plan to put the measure on the November ballot and will try for an unspecified future election.
Elsewhere in California, the effects of the virus were being felt far from the hardest-hit urban areas. All hotels and restaurants in Yosemite National Park, including the historic Ahwahnee Hotel, closed Tuesday until at least the end of the month over concerns about virus.
The decision came as the National Park Service also closed Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods National Monument and the Statue of Liberty in New York City on Monday, and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. three days earlier, as the pandemic threatened to devastate America’s tourist industry.
Yosemite officials reported that all park visitor centers, museums and shuttle buses also were closed. The park itself, including roads in and out of Yosemite Valley and hiking trails, remains open.
“They have broken my heart,” said Kurt Zeitler, an Elgin, Texas resident whose vacation plans were cancelled, in a Facebook post late Monday.
Rex Crum, Harriet Rowan, Fiona Kelliher, George Avalos, Nico Savidge and The Associated Press contributed reporting.
from News: Redlands Daily Facts https://ift.tt/2TZ7TJq
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