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The post Some Countries Reopened Schools. What Did They Learn About Kids and Covid? appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>As school officials try to figure out whether to open classrooms this fall, the science they need to make these tough choices is still evolving. A few things are clear: That most kids don’t become as seriously ill from Covid-19 as adults, and have much lower fatality rates. That’s according to data from the US and China published by the Centers for Disease Control.
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But the question of how likely children are to spread it to teachers, staff and other students still hasn’t been settled. One large new study from South Korea found children under the age of 10 appear to not transmit the virus very well. While it’s not exactly clear why, the pediatric infectious disease experts contacted by WIRED say that it’s perhaps because young children expel less air that contains the virus and are shorter, so any potential respiratory droplets are less likely to reach adults. A study published in April by researchers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston suggests that younger kids haven’t developed the molecular keys that the virus exploits to enter the body and wreak havoc on the respiratory system, microscopic structures known as ACE2 receptors.
But older students are more like adults in their ability to transmit the virus, according to the South Korea study, which makes school opening decisions tougher. Should administrators allow only elementary students to attend in person, while middle and high schoolers stay online at home? If they do, will younger children be able to keep their masks on all day or stay six feet apart? What about the psychological effects of continued isolation on teens, who many parents believe are already racking up too much screen time during the pandemic shutdown and now are facing months of online learning?
The CDC announced school reopening guidelines on Thursday that call for officials to reopen classrooms this fall, based on the idea that children do not become as sick from Covid-19 and are less likely to spread it as adults, and to belay any emotional and psychological harm from the disruption of schools staying closed. The agency issued these new guidelines after President Donald Trump attacked initial rules that called for desks being set 6 feet apart, staggered lunches, and temperature screenings, as being too costly and burdensome.
Dimitri Christakis helped draft a separate set of reopening guidelines for US schools in a report for the National Academy of Sciences released July 15. It says schools should take steps to reopen for younger students in grades K-5 and those of all ages who have special needs. Christakis says that with appropriate social distancing, hand-washing and protective masking, the risk to teachers, staff and students in a school can be reduced.
“With those additional precautions, primary school teachers should feel comfortable going to school,” says Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. “Those are the kids for which in-person learning is so important. We should prioritize these kids.”
At the same time, Christakis admits there are still some unknowns about transmission among school-age children. “We don’t have the answer to what extent children transmit the virus in general, and in particular in a school setting,” he says. “This is called the ‘novel coronavirus’ for good reason. It is acting very differently than most respiratory viruses and many other coronaviruses. Children appear to be less affected directly, and potentially less likely to transmit.”
Physicians like Christakis have been following the publication of epidemiological studies around the world to help make decisions about what might happen when schools might reopen in the US. Some countries, like Norway and Denmark, reopened their schools in the late spring starting with younger students. Schools there boosted sanitizing procedures and limited class size, keeping children in small groups at recess and putting space between desks. With these practices in place, neither country saw a rise in cases after reopening schools in April and May, according to a report on worldwide school practices compiled by the University of Washington Department of Global Health earlier this month.
Other countries, like Israel, opened schools at the same time that restrictions were lifted in May on surrounding communities, which led to Covid-19 outbreaks that had infected 1,335 Israeli students and 691 staff as of July 15. In Israel, schools reopened without masking or social distancing rules, according to The Wall Street Journal, and allowed up to 40 students per class, unlike the Scandanavian nations, which had limited class size. Since May, Israel has closed 125 schools and 258 kindergartens because of outbreaks.
Despite the Israeli numbers, there are other epidemiological case studies that indicate that spread of coronavirus can be limited in schools. In the German state of Saxony, physicians from Dresden University checked blood samples from 1,500 students and 500 teachers once schools reopened in May. Only 12 came back positive for antibodies to the coronavirus, indicating a low level of community infection. Their preliminary study, which has been posted on a preprint server and not peer-reviewed by a scientific journal, also reported that even though coronavirus cases were detected in three of the 13 schools surveyed, the infection did not spread throughout the schools or the nearby community.
Among 24 households in which at least one family member had previously tested positive for Covid-19, there was only one transmission of the virus to another family member. The study authors say that means that the schoolchildren did not get infected despite living with an infected family member, and also did not pass on the virus to other schoolchildren. “Our study finds that students play a less crucial role in transmitting the virus than initially thought,” Jakob Armann, an author of the study and a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University Children’s Hospital in Dresden, wrote in an email.
“We could not identify any hidden clusters, even in schools that had identified cases before the March lockdown,” Arman continued. “There is a way to reopen schools safely while maintaining certain measures (e.g. universal mask wearing in public transportation, in stores, no sporting events) to keep case numbers in the general population so low that you can keep students in school at the same time.”
While the German study might be considered a bit of good news for parents who want their children to return to in-person classes, there’s a big caveat. Unlike the United States, which has been plagued by a chaotic federal response and disparate measures by individual governors, German health officials followed public health guidelines and handled the coronavirus outbreak quickly once it emerged in March. Germany instituted early and widespread testing and treatment protocols, and set up plenty of intensive care beds. German citizens also trusted their government’s instructions to take precautions and widely observed social distancing guidelines.
Since then, Germany has reopened its schools, economy and sports leagues without losing control of the virus. Germany has had 206,667 cases and 9,124 deaths as of July 26, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.That compares to more than 4.2 million confirmed cases and 146,831 deaths in the United States, more than any other country.
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With 2,000 participants, the German study was relatively small. In epidemiology, a larger sample size can provide the kind of statistical power to bolster a conclusion about disease spread among a population. So it’s also worth looking at that study of nearly 5,700 South Korean coronavirus patients that was released this month on a preprint server by researchers at the Korean Centers for Disease Control. Through extensive contract tracing, the authors were able to track viral spread from so-called “index patients,” who are the first confirmed cases in a community cluster of infections, to the additional 59,000 people they infected. They found that children under 10 who were positive for Covid-19 had the lowest transmission rates of any age group, whereas children between 10 and 19 had transmission rates similar to adults.
The sample size of the study is impressive, but there are some issues to consider, according to William Raszka, a professor and pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Raszka notes that the researchers did not determine whether children were asymptomatic carriers of the disease. That’s important because as many as 40 percent of those infected with Covid-19 do not show any symptoms and may be spreading it unknowingly.
He also noted that the contact tracing was done when schools were closed and children were at home. “The take-home of this study for me is that very young children are unlikely to be infected or transmit disease in households,” Raszka says. “I’ve always been concerned about older children, and concerned that the older you are, the more likely you are to transmit. A 10-year-old will act much different than a 19-year-old.” Older teens spend more time out of the house, hang out with friends, and are less likely to follow social distancing rules than younger children living at home, he added.
Raszka believes schools can reopen for younger children if officials take precautions and testing is available once students or teachers become ill. “I don’t think you can make schools zero risk,” Raszka says. “But with the right mitigation strategies and the right policies at the district or state level you can make it low risk. Schools will look different.”
In the coming weeks, school board members and superintendents around the US will (hopefully) be relying on expert advice and scientific studies to determine whether to open their schools to in-person learning, and if so, how to manage the risk. Others might bend to political pressure from governors or the president, who has threatened to withhold federal education money if schools don’t reopen their classrooms. (It’s not clear if the administration can legally do this, and whether state or local school authorities would be affected.)
In places where the virus continues to rage, like Florida, Texas, and California, it may seem clear that online learning would be the safer bet for now. “When you have such surges of disease in the community, you are basically asking for trouble if you open schools,” says Tina Q. Tan, professor of pediatrics, Northwestern University and board member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
However, many school districts are somewhere in the middle: infections aren’t out of control, but the virus is still persistent. School officials there have to weigh the risks to teachers and students of opening classrooms against the psychological isolation and emotional harm of keeping kids at home all day for another six months. Experts say time is running short. Even if local authorities shut down public spaces and require masks and social distancing for everyone immediately, it would take several weeks to slow the spread of Covid-19, says Leana Wen, professor of public health at George Washington University and former Baltimore health commissioner.
“We saw what happens when we try to take shortcuts,” Wen said about the recurrence of Covid-19 cases after some states opened too fast in May and June. Opening schools without precautions, protocols and adequate testing, Wen says, “is not going to be effective and it’s going to cost lives.”
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The post Some Countries Reopened Schools. What Did They Learn About Kids and Covid? appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>The post Newsom reopened California before meeting testing standards appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>A month into his stay-at-home order and under pressure to lift restrictions, Gov. Gavin Newsom drew a line in the sand: In order to safely reopen and suppress the coronavirus, California needed to be able to test everyone with COVID-19 symptoms and trace the contacts of confirmed cases.
“The most important framework is our capacity to expand our testing to appropriately address the tracing and tracking of individuals, the isolation and the quarantine of individuals,” the governor said of his thresholds for reopening at an April 14 news conference.
But three weeks later, Newsom began reopening businesses before meeting his own benchmarks.
Now, the governor has once again ordered closures as California surpasses 350,000 COVID-19 cases. Hospitalizations have more than doubled and deaths have nearly tripled since Newsom launched the reopening on May 8. Many Californians are still struggling to get tested amid new shortages and growing demand.
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Cynthia Leonard helps her son Messi McDaniel, 6, with an oral swab test outside the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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A worker registers a driver who is celebrating a birthday with a test for coronavirus infection at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area testing site.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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Cars wait in line at the free COVID-19 testing site at the Hansen Dam Recreation Area in Sylmar.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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A worker checks the coronavirus test registration of a driver at the Hansen Dam site.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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Motorists line up for COVID-19 testing at Dodger Stadium.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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Mari Cruz takes a COVID-19 test from Tiffany Im at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
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Hundreds of motorists wait for COVID-19 tests in the Dodger Stadium parking lot.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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Maritza Perez, a registered nurse, puts on her personal protective equipment before administering COVID tests to some 50 to 65 patients at AltaMed Health Services in Anaheim.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
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Wilma Thomas, a registered nurse, left, and Viviana Robles, a licensed practical nurse, stand near a mister on a hot day of coronavirus testing at AltaMed Health Services in Anaheim.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
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Gregory Williams helps daughter Althea, 7, with an oral swab COVID-19 test at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South L.A. His wife, Zulema Cuevas, holds their 2-year-old.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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Walk-ins wait at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science testing site.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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Dalton Caputo delivers his family’s test samples at the Charles R. Drew site.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
The testing delays and inadequate resources for contact tracing make it impossible to halt spread of the virus, something that Newsom and state health officials had said the state needed to be prepared to do before opening up.
California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly defended the governor’s approach in an interview with The Times, noting that the fluid nature of the virus requires the state to constantly learn and adapt. He said counties attested to meeting the state’s requirements before they were allowed to move forward and he felt confident at the time that California was adequately testing symptomatic patients.
But in documentation submitted to the state attesting to their readiness for reopening, 17 counties wrote that they did not meet requirements for available, trained contact tracing staff and more than two dozen hadn’t hit targets for daily testing thresholds when they applied. Many of the counties said they intended to train more workers to investigate cases, or that they would have the capacity to boost testing, and Ghaly said those plans were sufficient for the state to allow them to reopen.
Those decisions are coming under scrutiny as the coronavirus is again surging unchecked.
An analysis by the Harvard Global Health Institute suggests California is conducting less than half the daily tests necessary to mitigate the virus and far fewer than needed to stop the spread, while states such as New York show greater success with testing. California’s testing rate was even lower when Newsom allowed counties to begin opening bars and gyms on June 12.
“California has kept the lid on the pot, but that’s not good enough,” said Thomas Tsai, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The goal is to turn the temperature down or get the pot off the stove.”
As efforts across the country to fight the deadly virus have been politicized, Newsom’s early assertion that the state’s reopening would be guided by science and health, not politics, was regarded as a gold standard by public health experts. Tsai and other researchers say widespread testing, tracking confirmed cases and isolating anyone who may have been exposed are among the only ways to stop the spread of the virus, absent a vaccine.
Experts hailed California’s March 19 stay-at-home order and credited Newsom’s decision-making in the early stages of the crisis, saying that his actions bought time for the healthcare system to prepare and prevented cases from overwhelming hospitals.
With businesses itching to reopen, Newsom called a news conference on April 14 and disclosed the parameters that he and top health officials had been privately using to determine when it was safe to return the state to some sense of normalcy.
In a document outlining the state’s six indicators for monitoring the stay-at-home order, officials posed key questions to be answered before reopening : “How prepared is our state to test everyone who is symptomatic?” and “do we have the ability to identify contacts of those who are positive to reduce further transmission?”
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The governor introduced a four-phase reopening plan two weeks later. A document provided by the administration on April 28 again described the thresholds as the “ability to test, contact trace, isolate, and support the exposed.” Among the key measures to move into Stage 2 were “sufficient testing capacity to meet demand” and “contact tracing capacity statewide.”
When the governor announced the imminent reopening of businesses and beginning of Stage 2 in early May, he called it a “very positive sign” that happened for only one reason: “Data says it can happen.”
By that time, Newsom faced pressures from all sides. While some local public health officials wanted the governor to keep the stay-at-home order in place, frustrated residents and a few local governments openly defied his restrictions. More than 3.5 million Californians had filed for unemployment benefits at that point and businesses across the state worried they couldn’t survive a continued shutdown.
The governor’s plan also included something the state described as a variance process that would allow counties to reopen more quickly if they met a series of benchmarks to show they were capable of containing the spread of the coronavirus.
Among the criteria to be met was a requirement that counties ensure at least 15 staff members per 100,000 residents were trained and available to conduct contact tracing, which 17 counties said they had not yet met and detailed plans to increase staffing over the coming weeks or months.
Another requirement noted that counties must have the capacity to test a daily minimum of 1.5 residents for every 1,000. Though more than two dozen counties had not reached the daily testing threshold when they submitted their forms to reopen, they still met the state’s standard because they explained how they could scale up within their healthcare system.
Weeks later, as cases climbed, the governor defended his reopening decisions and adopted the same argument made by many critics of his original order: The consequences of the COVID-19 shutdown for the economy and mental health were too great to ignore.
“We have to recognize you can’t be in a permanent state where people are locked away — for months and months and months and months on end — to see lives and livelihoods completely destroyed, without considering the health impact of those decisions as well,” Newsom said on June 15.
When pressured again in late June, Newsom conceded that some counties were struggling to contact trace and noted that the state needed to do more on testing.
“We certainly have a responsibility to increase, not only the total number of tests, but who we test, and how we test,” he said.
The governor has not specifically addressed why he created a testing and contact tracing benchmark and then seemed to disregard it before allowing the state to reopen.
Ghaly said hospitalizations and the rate of positives cases in the state had flattened at the time and officials were prepared to reinstitute changes if necessary. He said California had been able to conduct sufficient tests and could not have predicted that “big national lab companies were going to re-experience really extreme testing turnaround time problems, which is what we’ve seen over the past two to three weeks now.”
He said the contact tracing plans were also built around far less community transmission than California is currently experiencing and noted that officials are constantly learning and reassessing the state’s approach.
“And what else is one going to do in the setting of an unprecedented worldwide pandemic where, you know, there’s not too many instruction manuals?” he said.
Tsai said testing and contact tracing goals are only effective if they can be measured. But the state’s new contact tracing data management system, CalCONNECT, wasn’t widely used when most counties reopened.
The California Department of Public Health said Contra Costa County, one of two early adopters of CalCONNECT, used the system to reach and contact trace 809 of 894 cases in June.
Erika Jenssen, the deputy health services director for Contra Costa County, said the county’s testing and contact tracing remains a work in progress. When the county received authority from the state last month to reopen more businesses, it wrote on its attestation form that it had not yet met the state’s requirement of 15 contact tracers per 100,000 residents.
Jenssen said the county asked to join the CalCONNECT program and also recently received 30 contact tracers from the state, part of an effort to train 10,000 people for the job statewide. Jenssen said it’s been difficult to quickly train workers while adapting to the new system.
Delays in testing from commercial labs have also made it hard to effectively trace contacts of people who may have been contagious weeks before getting their results. The work of contact tracers is also made more difficult when cases are confirmed late. Case investigators and contact tracers are often so far behind that they can’t stop an infected person from transmitting the virus to others and have to instead focus on the contacts of those who they already infected, or the individuals those people could have in turn exposed.
“It’s challenging for people to recall where they were,” Jenssen said. “We’re saying, ‘OK, you tested positive two weeks ago, where were you?’”
The difficulties experienced by Contra Costa are being echoed in counties across the state as labs become overwhelmed with specimens. Last week, Los Angeles County officials limited their testing criteria in light of a shortage of supplies.
“The struggle in every arm of our response is just trying to keep pace with the demand,” said Matt Willis, the public health officer in Marin County.
Both Contra Costa and Marin counties have developed systems in which tests for high-risk cases, such as those tied to nursing homes or other dangerous outbreaks, are sent to government labs that process results more quickly and lower priority cases are directed to commercial labs with longer turnarounds.
Willis said he’s also seen the limitations of case investigations and contact tracing. His county sends a mobile testing unit to workplaces with suspected outbreaks and to test workers on site. The results often yield many more infections than those identified in case investigations, in which people who have tested positive are asked to identify others with whom they came in close contact.
The inability to contain the virus at this point has led Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela T. Matyas to believe that Newsom’s goal of testing, investigating, tracing and isolating cases to try and stop the disease has been futile for months.
“It’s kind of like saying, ‘I’m in the middle of a hurricane and my goal is to stop it from raining and being windy,’” Matyas said. “So, OK, I guess if that’s your goal, but since it’s completely impossible, how about an alternate goal like weathering the storm and making sure your family is safe?”
Instead on focusing on containment, Matyas said the state should try to mitigate hospitalizations and deaths by protecting the elderly and medically fragile. He said that approach would involve community surveillance testing at high-risk facilities such as nursing homes, and ensuring those types of care sites are protected from outside risks.
“I wouldn’t be wasting time testing a whole bunch of asymptomatic people who have jobs in sectors where high-risk people aren’t even being exposed,” he said.
This week, the state began to change how it prioritizes testing, moving away from a model that recommends testing for everyone, including those without symptoms.
Ghaly announced new guidelines on Tuesday that call for officials to first test hospital patients, people linked to potential outbreaks and the contacts of those who test positive. In its second priority tier, the state recommends testing anyone with symptoms, as well as those without symptoms who live and work in high-risk settings.
While Ghaly agreed that contact tracing has becoming increasingly challenging and counties should focus on high-risk settings, he said the state has not departed from its goal of suppressing and containing the virus.
Matyas said it will be difficult for the governor to change direction from working to contain the virus to focusing entirely on mitigating the number of deaths and serious illnesses from COVID-19, but predicted an inevitable course correction as the virus spreads and more counties become overwhelmed with cases.
“The problem is this has been driven by political forces,” he said. “When you stake your authority and your position on a certain narrative, it takes a lot to shift from that.”
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]]>The post Reopened schools in Europe and Asia have largely avoided coronavirus outbreaks. They have lessons for the U.S. appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Those experiences and conclusions may offer hopeful guidance to societies still weighing how to get students and teachers back into primary and secondary classrooms.
Still, public health officials and researchers caution that most school reopenings are in their early stages. Much remains unknown about the interaction between children, schools and the virus. And parents and teachers, especially in Europe, have been vocal about their concerns. It is premature to say, as President Trump put it this past week, that “In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS.”
While documented cases of younger students transmitting the virus to their classmates or to adults so far appear rare, there is enduring worry about the susceptibility of teens, college-age students and their teachers. And, especially in communities where the virus is still circulating widely, elaborate and expensive measures may be necessary to avoid shutting down entire schools each time a student tests positive.
Arnaud Fontanet, head of the Epidemiology of Emerging Diseases unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, said he “gladly” sent his four teenagers back when French schools reopened on a voluntary basis in mid-May. But he emphasized that was only because “the virus is not too much circulating in France.”
“High schoolers are still contagious and primary school students are less contagious but not zero-risk,” he said.
Little evidence of outbreaks linked to primary schools
Public health officials and researchers say they have not detected much coronavirus transmission among students or significant spikes in community spread as a result of schools being in session — at least for students under 12.
Virologists warn there may be additional spread that hasn’t been recognized, since testing asymptomatic people, particularly children, remains uncommon. But in many cases, young children who test positive have gotten it from someone in their family and do not appear to have infected others in school. Dig into reports of two or three elementary students with the virus, and often it turns out they’re siblings.
There are exceptions. At the École Louis-de-France, an elementary school in Trois Rivières, Canada, almost an entire class of 12 students tested positive in late May. And at the Cheondong Elementary School in Daejeon, South Korea, two brothers were found to have the virus on June 29, and two students who had contact with one of the brothers tested positive the next day.
Such cases, though, have been rare. Before the suspected transmission in Daejeon, South Korea’s education minister had emphasized that not a single student in the country had contracted the virus at school.
In Finland, when public health researchers combed through test results of children under 16, they found no evidence of school spread and no change in the rate of infection for that age cohort after schools closed in March or reopened in May. In fact, Finland’s infection rate among children was similar to Sweden’s, even though Sweden never closed its schools, according to a report published Tuesday by researchers from the two countries.
In Sweden, researchers also found that staff members at day cares and primary schools were no more likely than people working in other professions to contract the virus.
“It really starts to add up to the fact that the risk of transmission, the number of outbreaks in which the index is a child, is very low, and this seems to be the picture everywhere else,” said Otto Helve, who worked on the report as a pediatric infectious-disease specialist at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.
He said he sent his own children back to school.
Why young children may be less susceptible to the coronavirus or less prone to exhibit symptoms of covid-19, the disease it causes, remains a topic of hot debate among scientists. Theories range from the possibility that children have fewer of the receptors that the virus uses as a gateway into the respiratory system to their having higher overall immunity because of a greater exposure to other types of coronavirus.
But the overall observation has led some to question whether school closures were warranted in the first place.
“The scientific evidence for the effects of closing schools is weak and disputed,” said Camilla Stoltenberg, director general of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, which has advised Norway’s pandemic response.
She said that although she supported her country’s March lockdown, it was less clear that Norway needed to close schools. “We should all have second thoughts about whether it was really necessary,” she said. “We see now that, after having opened schools, we haven’t had any outbreaks.”
Concern remains for older students
The calculations may be different, however, for students in their teens and older, as they are thought to be somewhat more prone to the virus and more capable of spreading it.
In Israel, where the virus has been surging again, schools at every level have been affected. By early June, more than 100 schools had been shut and more than 13,000 students and teachers had been sent home to quarantine. The most notable outbreak was tied to a middle and high school: The Gymnasia Rehavia in Jerusalem saw 153 students and 25 staff test positive.
Israeli health authorities said they were unsure how many of those cases were the result of the virus being passed around within school buildings.
“We just don’t have a good answer for that,” said Hagai Levine, the chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians. Many students tend to spend time together in and out of school, Levine said, making it hard to pinpoint the actual site of transmission. “There does some to be evidence that there is less transmission in children under 10.”
Plans are uncertain for what classes will look like in Israel on Sept. 1, when the next school year begins.
Some schools are giving up on social distancing
In many nations preparing to reopen school buildings for the first time in the fall, social distancing concerns are dominating the debate.
The Italian government, which closed schools when the pandemic first exploded and made no attempt to restart in the spring, has pledged to restart classes in mid-September and has committed to “less-overpacked classrooms.”
“We don’t want chicken coops,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a national address.
But many countries that resumed in-person classes in May and June have already abandoned some social distancing measures, at least in primary schools.
In Japan, where schools reopened shortly after the country’s state of emergency was lifted in May, children initially attended on alternate days in some schools to allow for more space in classrooms. But classes are largely back to normal now, albeit with students and teachers wearing masks, washing hands regularly and taking daily temperature checks.
When France shifted from voluntary to mandatory attendance for primary and middle school students for the last two weeks of June, a social distancing requirement of four square meters between students was reduced to one meter laterally.
“This allows us to accommodate all students,” Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said at the time of the announcement.
Similarly, before the biggest wave of school reopenings in Belgium in early June, policymakers declared that strict physical distancing rules would not be enforced, allowing more students in each classroom at once.
Belgian schools are now closed again for the summer, but leaders are planning an ambitious reopening plan for Sept. 1. For kids under 12, classes will remain in session, full-time and full-capacity, no matter how bad the second wave of infections gets in the country. If current infection rates stay steady in Belgium, students age 12 and older will attend school four days a week, with an additional half-day of virtual schooling. Officials would dial back the in-person schooling for the older children if there is a second wave.
To some extent, these shifts reflect growing confidence that bringing children together may not lead to a spike in infections.
There is also rising concern about the downsides of keeping students home.
Belgium’s reopening was accelerated by an open letter from hundreds of pediatricians arguing that the educational cost of keeping schools closed was worse than the health risk of reopening them.
In Germany, some public health experts have welcomed plans to drop a 1.5-meter minimum distance rule and resume full-capacity classes after summer vacation. Policymakers fear that digital learning has put poorer students at a greater disadvantage and that there would be a rising mental health toll on students if school restrictions dragged on.
But the shift away from social distancing is also about practical concerns.
“Basically, the difficulty is enforcing social distancing among students,” said Fontanet of the Pasteur Institute. He said distancing is hard for high school students, but especially for younger kids. “People have more or less given up on that entirely at this stage,” he said.
Although schools in Israel initially resumed with strict rules about temperature checks, carefully spaced-out desks and masks, critics complained that the precautions quickly lapsed. “Within two or three days, that all fell away,” said Dan Ben-David, president of the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research.
Italy’s education minister, Lucia Azzolina, said that to keep classroom sizes at acceptable levels, districts would have to reopen shuttered school buildings and transfer some students elsewhere. She also floated the idea of holding classes in theaters, cinemas and museums — “even parks,” she said.
But countries that have resumed classes already have found that it’s easier and cheaper to welcome all students back to their classrooms than it is to devise complicated schedules with multiple shifts or to find new space.
Creating ‘bubbles’ within schools may be more important
In Israel, hypervigilant public health officials mandated that an entire school close any time a single coronavirus case was detected among students or staff.
By contrast, in Germany, when a student tested positive, that class was put into a mandatory two-week quarantine, but the rest of the school continued on.
Clearly, the German model is less disruptive. Some health experts have thus come to advocate that more important than social distancing within a classroom are efforts to create bubbles within schools, to limit potential contamination and the need to shut everything down.
England started sending some grades back on a voluntary basis in June. But when schools fully reopen in September for mandatory, full-time, in-person classes, elementary school students will be in “class bubbles” of up to 30 and high school students in “year bubbles” of up to 240.
Quebec, the Canadian province hit hardest by the coronavirus, experimented with various means of social distancing when it reopened elementary schools outside Montreal in May. Classes were limited to 15 students. Libraries remained closed. Recess times were staggered. Some schools painted green dots on schoolyard grounds to mark sufficient separation.
Bubbles will be introduced when elementary and high schools reopen for compulsory in-class instruction in the fall. Within classrooms, students will form groups of up to six students who won’t have to maintain social distancing. Bubbles must keep a one-meter distance from each other and two meters from teachers.
Helve, the Finnish infectious-disease specialist, noted that bubbles may be especially valuable in societies with high infection rates, such as the United States, where it may be inevitable that a student or teacher shows up with the virus at some point.
“How do you minimize the impact on the school?” he said. “The more cases you have in a society, the more likely it is that you will have an outbreak at a school, or that you will have a teacher or a parent or a child who brings the virus to the school.”
Voluntary returns may mean a lot of students stay home
In part because there haven’t been many outbreaks associated with schools, some students, parents and teachers who initially resisted classroom reopenings have come around.
One survey of French-speaking parents in Belgium found that 96 percent of respondents planned to send their children back to school in the fall.
Technically, they won’t have a choice. Education is compulsory in Belgium for children age 6 and above, and although the requirement was suspended this spring, it will be back in force in September.
That’s in line with moves by many countries away from voluntary in-person attendance, which saw limited uptake.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was forced to delay plans for a full reopening of elementary schools in England after strong resistance from teaching unions and some parents, intends to forge ahead in the fall.
“We want them all back in September,” said Johnson. “We’ve got to start thinking of a world in which we are less apprehensive about this disease.”
In France, when schools reopened in May on a voluntary basis, statistics from the Education Ministry showed that only about 1.8 million out of 6.7 million nursery and primary schoolers went back, along with 600,000 out of 3.3 million middle schoolers.
France had hoped reopening would address the inequalities evident under distance learning. But the government found that students from wealthier families were more likely to be among those who returned to their classrooms, while many poorer families continued to keep their children home. The education minister suggested the gap had to do with a lack of trust.
French officials ultimately made school attendance mandatory for the final two weeks of classes in June, before the summer holidays began. Families and teachers questioned the need for such a scramble for so little class time. Some accused the government of being more concerned about freeing parents to return to work than about the needs of students and teachers.
That’s in contrast to the United States, where a growing chorus of families complain that state and local governments are downplaying the need for kids to be in school before parents can return to their workplaces.
The French government defended its decision.
“Two weeks count; two weeks are not nothing, whether it’s out of an educational aspect or a psychological aspect,” Blanquer, the education minister, said. “School should never be considered as a day-care center of sorts.”
James McAuley in Paris, Karla Adam in London, Rick Noack in Berlin, Steve Hendrix in Jerusalem, Min Joo Kim in Seoul, Simon Denyer in Tokyo, Amanda Coletta in Toronto, Quentin Ariès in Brussels and Chico Harlan in Rome contributed to this report.
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]]>Positive economic news poured in from reopened states Wednesday as President Trump hosted the governors of Arkansas and Kansas at the White House, while Florida’s governor blasted the media for incorrectly predicting that he ended the state’s coronavirus shutdown too soon.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, told the president in a White House meeting that his state is “back to work” and that the state’s sales tax revenue likely will bounce back faster than expected.
“All of our retail stores are open, all of our retail establishments totally are open, our gyms are open,” Mr. Hutchinson said. “Our barbers are open, our restaurants.”
Echoing the president’s prediction of “pent-up demand,” Mr. Hutchinson said he now projects the state’s sales tax revenue will be down only 5%, instead of the 10% he had projected.
The president said that prediction is more evidence of “a great transition period” in the third quarter.
“I think you’re going to have a very good fourth quarter,” Mr. Trump said. “States are opening up, some rapidly, safely.”
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, citing the Congressional Budget Office, said third-quarter growth could be 21.5% — “the biggest growth quarter in American history.”
The second quarter is likely to be the worst in history, with some forecasts predicting economic output falling at an annualized rate of 40% as nearly all states imposed restrictions on work and travel.
Stocks rose to more than 10-week highs Wednesday as investors focused on signs of the economy reopening. The S&P 500 gained more than 1.6%, to 2,972 and is up more than 30% from its low two months ago.
All 50 states have lifted at least some stay-at-home restrictions ahead of the three-day Memorial Day weekend.
An AP-NORC poll released Wednesday showed that opposition is rising to stay-at-home orders. The survey found 24% of respondents oppose requirements to stay at home except for essential errands, compared with 11% in the same poll on April 16.
In the poll, 62% still favor stay-at-home requirements, compared with 80% a month ago.
Mr. Hutchinson said Arkansas still has some restrictions, such as one-third occupancy limits in restaurants.
“And we’re emphasizing appropriate social distancing, but we’re at work,” the governor said.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, praised the president for sending in a “CDC SWAT team” to help the state through an outbreak of COVID cases at meatpacking plants in the southwestern part of her state.
In Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis received a visit from Vice President Mike Pence, the governor showed he had his fill of the press second-guessing his plan to reopen the state relatively quickly.
“You got a lot of people in your profession who waxed poetically for weeks and weeks about how Florida was going to be just like New York — ‘wait two weeks, Florida’s going to be next,’” Mr. DeSantis told reporters with the vice president at his side. “Well hell, we’re eight weeks away from that, and it hasn’t happened. Not only do we have a lower death rate, we have way lower deaths generally.
“We have a lower death rate than the Acela corridor, D.C., everyone up there. We have a lower rate death rate in the Midwest, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio. But even in our region — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia — Florida has the lower death rate, and I was the Number One landing spot from tens of thousands of people leaving the Number One hot zone in the world [New York] to come to my state.”
“So we’ve succeeded,” the governor said. “And I think that people just don’t want to recognize it because it challenges their narrative. It challenges their assumption, so they got to try to find a boogeyman, maybe … there are black helicopters circling the Department of Health. If you believe that I got a bridge in Brooklyn, I’d like to sell you.”
Florida has recorded almost 2,100 deaths from COVID-19 and about 47,000 cases. It ranks ninth in the U.S. in total cases, with a population of 21.5 million.
Nationwide, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany pointed to “encouraging numbers” as she said states are reopening safely.
“We continue to see a week-over-week decline, a 15% decline in deaths in just the last week,” she said. “April 1 to mid-May, a 50% decline in new hospitalizations, and under 25,000 cases today. So we are seeing progress.”
The U.S., with a population of 330 million, has recorded more than 1.5 million cases and 93,000 deaths.
Mr. Pence visited a senior living complex with Mr. DeSantis to deliver supplies of personal protective equipment.
“Now as Florida begins to open up again … we are going to continue to partner with you to protect your most vulnerable,” Mr. Pence told the governor.
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]]>Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Sunday he has not seen any spikes in new coronavirus cases in states that recently reopened “non-essential” businesses.
The HHS chief expressed optimism that state governments have the tools to avoid new outbreaks of COVID-19, as several places including Wisconsin, South Carolina, Georgia and Colorado enter new phases of reopening local businesses. Several states have recorded record highs in the number of new daily coronavirus cases, but those numbers are in direct correlation to an increasing amount of tests being made available to residents. Newly reported deaths tied to the virus have leveled off or decreased.
During a CNN interview, host Jake Tapper said to Azar that it’s “intriguing” that some states that reopened “despite warnings of dire consequences from health experts” have — so far — not seen any dramatic spikes in new cases. “Is it still too early to tell?” he asked Azar Sunday morning.
“We are seeing that in areas that are opening, we’re not seeing the spike in cases,” Azar said. “We still see spikes in some areas that are, in fact, closed, very localized situations. And so this is going to be very important for us to watch the circumstances on the ground.”
A representative for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services told Newsweek Sunday that the state’s steady increase in new positive coronavirus cases, 502 between Friday and Saturday and 410 the day before, are on par with their expansion of testing. Last week, many “nonessential” businesses including bars and restaurants reopened after the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a statewide “safer at home” order which had kept them closed them for weeks.
Wisconsin saw a drop in new positive cases between Saturday and Sunday and its 7-day average has remained steady. But state health officials noted there can be a lag time of around 14 days between infection and potential hospitalization among those who experience symptoms of coronavirus.
Azar said in the interview that the key to the reopening of state economies and businesses is the surveillance of asymptomatic individuals as well as those in congregate living situations like prisons or nursing home facilities.
He said the Trump administration has set a goal for 300 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine to be available to Americans by the end of 2020, although he noted this is “not a pledge.” Azar added that reopening “does not depend on a vaccine” getting developed, but that the Trump administration is “committed to delivering a vaccine” using the full power of the federal government and private sector.
Many states that began reopening on May 1, including South Carolina and Wisconsin, have seen their highest daily numbers in new coronavirus cases, but this comes as the federal and state governments have worked together to expand testing.
On Saturday, South Carolina’s health department did not announce any new deaths from COVID-19 over the previous 24-hour period, which remained at 380 from Friday. However, the state did report a new daily high of 276 new cases on Saturday — up from 218 on Friday. Governor Henry McMaster lifted the home or work order in South Carolina on May 1.
“More testing has led to an increase in positive test results and we encourage everyone who needs to get a test to get a test,” Wisconsin Department of Health Services communications representative Jennifer Miller told Newsweek via email Sunday.
“We likely won’t know for another 14 days or more what impact the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling will have on case counts, though we are preparing for an increase of cases if people do not practice physical distancing or continue healthy hygiene practices,” she added.
Texas is another state that posted its highest-yet amount of new cases in one day on Saturday. But health officials there echoed the sentiment of other states which have reopened by saying an increase in testing has boosted that number. Texas, however, has failed numerous times to reach its testing goals.
Scott Olson / Staff/Getty Images
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WASHINGTON — Federal officials responding to the coronavirus pandemic are concerned about the rapidly rising number of cases in Palm Beach County, Fla., according to an internal Trump administration document reviewed by Yahoo News.
The document, a May 15 daily interagency update on the nation’s coronavirus response circulated by the Department of Homeland Security, notes new areas of concern for coronavirus. It was provided to Yahoo News by one of its recipients under the condition that that recipient not be identified.
“As most states have begun phased re-opening, several COVID-19 hotspots continue to emerge,” the notice says. Three counties are then listed: Palm Beach; San Bernardino County, Calif.; and Marshall County, Ala.
31 PHOTOS
States reopen, relax guidelines to prevent coronavirus spread
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 06: An employee wearing a mask cleans the inside of the restaurant, Blue Stripes Cacao Shop as it prepares to reopen for takeaway and delivery orders after being closed for over a month amid the coronavirus pandemic on May 6, 2020 in New York City. Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement that all bars and restaurants must close by on March 16th unless it was takeout or delivery. COVID-19 has spread to most countries around the world, claiming over 263,000 lives with over 3.8 million cases. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 06: An employee wearing a mask cleans the inside of the restaurant, Blue Stripes Cacao Shop as it prepares to reopen for takeaway and delivery orders after being closed for over a month amid the coronavirus pandemic on May 6, 2020 in New York City. Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement that all bars and restaurants must close by on March 16th unless it was takeout or delivery. COVID-19 has spread to most countries around the world, claiming over 263,000 lives with over 3.8 million cases. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
THOUSAND OAKS, CA – MAY 06: A Cadillac Dealership displays a sign stating its reopened during the Coronavirus Pandemic on May 06, 2020 in Thousand Oaks, California. The coronavirus pandemic worldwide has claimed over 263,000 lives and infected over 3.7 million people. (Photo by Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, May 5, 2020 — Customers shop at a shopping mall in Frisco, on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, the United States, May 5, 2020. After closed for several weeks due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the shopping mall reopened with shortened business hours on Tuesday. (Photo by Dan Tian/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/ via Getty Images)
HOUSTON, May 5, 2020 — Cars are parked in front of a shopping mall in Frisco, on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, the United States, May 5, 2020. After closed for several weeks due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the shopping mall reopened with shortened business hours on Tuesday. (Photo by Dan Tian/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/ via Getty Images)
Dawson Padilla (L), owner of a protein shakes store, works behind the bar on May 5, 2020 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. – In the face of intimidation against employees and the threat of an armed attack by local residents wielding their individual liberties, the mayor of Stillwater had to give in: he gave up imposing the wearing of masks on customers in shops. This demand was included in a 21-page document that was supposed to accompany the gradual reopening of restaurants and shops from 1 May, as authorized by the state of Oklahoma. “About three and a half hours after the law came into effect” of the text, “we started receiving calls from stores claiming that employees were being threatened and insulted, and threatened with physical violence,” said Norman McNickle, the city’s director of services. (Photo by Johannes EISELE / AFP) (Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)
A worker of the Aspen Cafe wears a mask as she makes coffee on May 5, 2020 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. – In the face of intimidation against employees and the threat of an armed attack by local residents wielding their individual liberties, the mayor of Stillwater had to give in: he gave up imposing the wearing of masks on customers in shops. This demand was included in a 21-page document that was supposed to accompany the gradual reopening of restaurants and shops from 1 May, as authorized by the state of Oklahoma. “About three and a half hours after the law came into effect” of the text, “we started receiving calls from stores claiming that employees were being threatened and insulted, and threatened with physical violence,” said Norman McNickle, the city’s director of services. (Photo by Johannes EISELE / AFP) (Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)
Kelly Lyda, owner of the Aspen Cafe, stands in his Cafe on May 5, 2020 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. – In the face of intimidation against employees and the threat of an armed attack by local residents wielding their individual liberties, the mayor of Stillwater had to give in: he gave up imposing the wearing of masks on customers in shops. This demand was included in a 21-page document that was supposed to accompany the gradual reopening of restaurants and shops from 1 May, as authorized by the state of Oklahoma. “About three and a half hours after the law came into effect” of the text, “we started receiving calls from stores claiming that employees were being threatened and insulted, and threatened with physical violence,” said Norman McNickle, the city’s director of services. (Photo by Johannes EISELE / AFP) (Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)
Computer specialist Toby Angel drinks his coffee on May 5, 2020 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. – In the face of intimidation against employees and the threat of an armed attack by local residents wielding their individual liberties, the mayor of Stillwater had to give in: he gave up imposing the wearing of masks on customers in shops. This demand was included in a 21-page document that was supposed to accompany the gradual reopening of restaurants and shops from 1 May, as authorized by the state of Oklahoma. “About three and a half hours after the law came into effect” of the text, “we started receiving calls from stores claiming that employees were being threatened and insulted, and threatened with physical violence,” said Norman McNickle, the city’s director of services. (Photo by Johannes EISELE / AFP) (Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images)
WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT – MAY 05: A cafe along a shopping street in the affluent community remains mostly empty of pedestrians and open stores on May 05, 2020 in Westport, Connecticut. A growing number of states have begun reopening parts of the economy amid demonstrations like the one yesterday that targeted the Connecticut state capital and the governor’s mansion in Hartford. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT – MAY 05: A cafe along a shopping street in the affluent community remains mostly empty of pedestrians and open stores on May 05, 2020 in Westport, Connecticut. A growing number of states have begun reopening parts of the economy amid demonstrations like the one yesterday that targeted the Connecticut state capital and the governor’s mansion in Hartford. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
LAGUNA HILLS, CA – MAY 05: Customers maintain safety protocols at The BarberHood in Laguna Hills, CA, on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. The shop is one of the first to re-open and defy the state”u2019s stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) lockdown. (Photo by Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
SAN CLEMENTE, CA – MAY 05: Visitors walk on the beach south of the pier in San Clemente, CA on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. The city opened its beaches for daily active use after coordinating with Gov. Gavin Newsom”u2019s office to maintain social distancing during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) lockdown. (Photo by Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
SAN CLEMENTE, CA – MAY 05: Surfers were back on the waves at T Street in San Clemente, CA on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. The city opened its beaches for daily active use after coordinating with Gov. Gavin Newsom”u2019s office to maintain social distancing during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) lockdown. (Photo by Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
KENMORE, WA – MAY 05: Lynette Fisher-Charles and her dog Gracie, a two-year-old springer spaniel, go for a hike in Saint Edward State Park on May 5, 2020 in Kenmore, Washington. The first phase to reopen the state begins today easing some restrictions including opening some parks, that were put in place during Governor Jay Inslees Stay Home, Stay Healthy order last March to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Kenmore, WA is located northeast of Seattle. (Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)
KENMORE, WA – MAY 05: Daryl Kline, a park ranger at Saint Edward State Park removes a sign saying the park is closed on May 5, 2020 in Kenmore, Washington. The first phase to reopen the state begins today easing some restrictions that were put in place during Governor Jay Inslees Stay Home, Stay Healthy order last March to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Kenmore, WA is located northeast of Seattle. (Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images)
LAGUNA BEACH, CA – MAY 05: Lifeguards keep a lookout at Laguna Beach, CA after officials reopened access to the sand on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. The beach has been closed since March 23, 2020 due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak. City parks along the beach are still closed and people cannot sit or linger on the sand. (Photo by Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, May 4, 2020 — Photo taken on May 4, 2020 shows Times Square in New York, the United States.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, New York Governnor Andrew Cuomo on Monday outlined additional guidelines regarding when regions can reopen.
According to the Governor’s Press Office, the state will monitor four core factors to determine if a region can reopen: number of new infections, health care capacity, diagnostic testing capacity and contact tracing capacity. (Photo by Wang Ying/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Wang Ying via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, May 4, 2020 — A worker cleans a cafe’s signboard at Times Square in New York, the United States, May 4, 2020.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, New York Governnor Andrew Cuomo on Monday outlined additional guidelines regarding when regions can reopen.
According to the Governor’s Press Office, the state will monitor four core factors to determine if a region can reopen: number of new infections, health care capacity, diagnostic testing capacity and contact tracing capacity. (Photo by Wang Ying/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/Wang Ying via Getty Images)
ASBURY PARK, NJ – MAY 4: People walk near the closed boardwalk due to the outbreak of COVID-19 in the state on May 4, 2020 in the Jersey Shore in New Jersey. Some towns at Jersey Shore expect the reopening of beaches soon. (Photo by Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Images)
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – MAY 4: Although all golf courses in Massachusetts are still ordered to stay closed by governor Charlie Baker, workers at the North Andover Country Club in North Andover, MA work on the grass on May 4, 2020, getting the course ready for when they eventually are allowed to re-open. (Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – MAY 04: Gov. Gavin Newsom announced select retail businesses will be allowed to reopen starting Friday in California during the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, May 4, 2020 in Los Angeles, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
SANFORD, UNITED STATES – MAY 04, 2020: Customers enjoy a meal at Racks Billiards Sports Bar and Grill on the first day that retail stores and restaurants in all Florida counties except Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami Dade were permitted to reopen as COVID-19 restrictions are eased. Under phase one of the plan to reopen the state, stores and restaurants are limited to 25 percent of their indoor capacity.- PHOTOGRAPH BY Paul Hennessy / Echoes Wire/ Barcroft Studios / Future Publishing (Photo credit should read Paul Hennessy / Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
SANFORD, UNITED STATES – MAY 04, 2020: A customer leaves a Books-A-Million store on the first day that retail stores and restaurants in all Florida counties except Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami Dade were permitted to reopen as COVID-19 restrictions are eased. Under phase one of the plan to reopen the state, stores and restaurants are limited to 25 percent of their indoor capacity.- PHOTOGRAPH BY Paul Hennessy / Echoes Wire/ Barcroft Studios / Future Publishing (Photo credit should read Paul Hennessy / Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
BOZEMAN, MT – MAY 04: Sales staff wear masks at the reopened Schnee’s Boots, Shoes and Outdoors on Main Street on May 4, 2020 in Bozeman, Montana. Wyoming health officials today reported that the state’s confirmed coronavirus cases grew by nine to a total of 444. (Photo by William Campbell/Getty Images)
BOZEMAN, MT – MAY 04: Signs for restaurants and stores announce their reopenings on Main Street on May 4, 2020 in Bozeman, Montana. Wyoming health officials today reported that the state’s confirmed coronavirus cases grew by nine to a total of 444. (Photo by William Campbell/Getty Images)
JENSEN BEACH, FLORIDA – MAY 04: Cole Hunter carries Harper Hunter, 1, as Holly Hunter,4, follows along as they arrive at the beach on May 04, 2020 in Jensen Beach, Florida. Restaurants, retailers, as well as beaches and some state parks reopened today with caveats, as the state continues to ease restrictions put in place to contain COVID-19. The counties of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami Dade continue to maintain restrictions. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE BEACH, FLORIDA – MAY 04: People are seen dining outside at Cruisers Grill as the state of Florida enters phase one of the plan to reopen the state on May 04, 2020 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Restaurants, retailers, beaches and some state parks reopen today with caveats, as the state continues to ease restrictions put in place to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19). (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
JACKSONVILLE BEACH, FLORIDA – MAY 04: People are seen at a department store as the state of Florida enters phase one of the plan to reopen the state on May 04, 2020 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Restaurants, retailers, beaches and some state parks reopen today with caveats, as the state continues to ease restrictions put in place to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19). (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
SAINT AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA – MAY 04: A mask is seen on the statue of Henry M. Flagler as the state of Florida enters phase one of the plan to reopen the state on May 04, 2020 in Saint Augustine, Florida. Restaurants, retailers, beaches and some state parks reopen today with caveats, as the state continues to ease restrictions put in place to contain the coronavirus (COVID-19). (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
A man works on power lines in Los Angeles, California on May 4, 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic. – California governor Gavin Newsom earlier today announced the gradual reopening of the state later this week as dismal US employment figures are expected with the release of figures Friday May 8 for April’s US jobs report, as 30 million Americans filed for unemployment in the last six weeks. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Palm Beach County, FL reported a 71% increase in new cases the last 7 days compared to the previous 7 days,” the document explains. “The state authorized Palm Beach County to begin Phase 1 of reopening on 11 May, which includes the reopening of barbershops, salons, restaurants, and other businesses.”
President Trump recently changed his primary residence from Manhattan to his Mar-a-Lago golf resort, which is located in Palm Beach County.
The information in the document is attributed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and was collected on May 12, which means cases were rising even before the county began to reopen on May 11. Other parts of the state had begun to reopen earlier, on May 4.
Neither FEMA nor the DHS responded immediately to a request for comment.
The DHS document says that San Bernardino County in California “reported an increase of 782 cases in the last 7 days, nearly doubling new cases reported in the previous 7 days. County officials recently began Phase II of the county’s reopening plan, lifting requirements for mask use on 8 May.”
Marshall County, Ala., the document says, “reported 217 cases in the last 7 days, a 517% increase over the previous 7 days. Marshall County is home to several poultry plants and the meat packing industry accounts for 8% of the county’s employment. On 11 May, additional businesses were reopened.”
Public health officials have warned that lifting stay-at-home orders would lead to more infections and, inevitably, more deaths. Some governors have either discounted or dismissed such warnings, as has President Trump.
Encompassing the beachfront and inland communities north of Miami, Palm Beach County has a population density about four times that of Marshall County, which is in the northeastern corner of Alabama, and seven times that of San Bernardino County, which encompasses the desert region east of Los Angeles. Population density is thought to contribute to the spread of the coronavirus, which causes the lung disease known as COVID-19. That disease has killed more than 87,000 Americans, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The coronavirus also tends to strike older people. The average age of a Palm Beach County resident is 45 years old, whereas the average Marshall County resident is 39 years old and the San Bernardino County resident is only 33 years old.
Palm Beach is home to many retirement communities, a fact that worries health officials. The county has recorded 263 coronavirus deaths, three more than the entirety of South Korea, which recorded its first coronavirus case on the same late January day as the United States.
Neither the governor’s press secretary nor county officials responded on late Friday afternoon to Yahoo News requests for comment.
Florida was one of the first states to reopen, at the urging of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had also been slow to close his state, effectively waiting for permission from Trump to do so. DeSantis’s faltering and confusing response to the coronavirus made him among the nation’s least popular governors, according to a national survey conducted in April.
In recent days, however, DeSantis has been celebrated by some for Florida’s seeming success in battling the coronavirus. But a good part of that success appears to have come from shelter-in-place orders by mayors who acted ahead of DeSantis.
Allegations have also surfaced that the state has deliberately underreported its coronavirus numbers.
Additional reporting by Jana Winter.
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]]>As California businesses slowly reopen, public health officials are trying to make sure they follow social distancing rules to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.
Over the weekend, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said that it surveyed 410 businesses and found 162 were in violation “because they were allowing customers into stores, not following physical distancing measures and not requiring customers to wear cloth face coverings.”
Some retailers were allowed to reopen with curbside service beginning Friday, including florists, bookstores and clothing stores.
“As a reminder, retail establishments are closed to public entry and must ensure compliance with all protocols before reopening. Inspectors will continue to monitor for compliance and ensure that all adhere to the health officer order,” the county said.
County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said one concern was flower shops that were observed allowing customers into stores, not following the physical distancing measures, and not requiring the customers to wear cloth face coverings, she told reporters Monday.
Hiking trails, parks and golf courses reopened throughout the county Saturday. Overall, Ferrer said people did not mob those locations.
Los Angeles County beaches, which have been closed since late March, will reopen Wednesday with restrictions.
Surfing, swimming, running and walking will be allowed. Biking, playing volleyball, sitting, sunbathing and picnicking will not. Coolers and canopies are also not allowed. Parking lots, bike paths, piers and boardwalks will remain closed.
Everyone will be required to wear masks and stay at least six feet away from others, officials said.
San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said the vast majority of San Franciscans are complying with the health orders. Officers have patrolled parks each weekend to ensure people are wearing masks and keeping six feet apart.
San Francisco will monitor hospitalization rates closely after some small businesses are allowed to reopen for pickup and delivery next week, city officials said Monday.
“Offering delivery and pickup service is a big step, and it is definitely a big risk,” Mayor London Breed said at a news conference with other city officials. “We know that the more people are in contact with the public, there is a higher probability that they can contract the virus.”
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