U.S. debates school reopenings as WHO warns it will get worse without following ‘the basics’
The resurgence of the coronavirus in the United States ignited fierce debate Monday about whether to reopen schools, as global health officials warned that the pandemic will intensify unless more countries adopt comprehensive plans to combat it.
“If the basics aren’t followed, there is only one way this pandemic is going to go,” said the director of the
World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “It’s going to get worse and worse and worse.”
Debate over the risks that the virus poses, and how best to fight it, were spotlighted in Florida after it shattered the record among U.S. states for the largest single-day increase, with more than 15,000 newly confirmed cases on Sunday.
WHO officials cautioned that decisions on reopening schools should be made without political considerations, as part of a comprehensive strategy for battling COVID-19.
“We can’t turn schools into yet another political football in this game. It’s not fair on our children,” Dr. Michael Ryan, the organization’s emergencies chief, said Monday.
The debate is hardly limited to Florida.
In Detroit, where summer school for hundreds of students opened Monday, protesters blocked a schoolbus yard with tree branches.
“When I visited schools this morning I knew we were doing the right thing for children,” schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a post on Twitter.
“COVID is not going away. Many of our children need face-to-face, direct engagement,” he said.
But lawyer Shanta Driver said she planned to file a lawsuit to stop the in-person instruction.
“I’m not going back until this pandemic is defeated. There is not a safe way to return to school while this virus is spreading uncontained,” said teacher Benjamin
Royal.
Officials in California’s two largest school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, announced Monday that students will stick to online learning from home when school resumes next month, rather than return to classrooms.
The districts cited research about school-safety experiences from around the world, along with state and local health guidance.
“One fact is clear: Those countries that have managed to safely reopen schools have done so with declining infection rates and on-demand testing available. California has neither,” the districts said in a joint statement. Los Angeles, the second-largest school district in the U.S., has about 730,000 students and San Diego serves about 135,000 students.
Shortly after the districts made their announcement, California Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded the closure of bars and indoor dining statewide and ordered gyms, churches and hair salons closed in most places.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said schools will be allowed to reopen in parts of the state where infection rates average 5% or less for two weeks. Students and teachers will be screened for illness, must wear masks and keep 6 feet apart when possible.
“Common sense and intelligence can still determine what we do even in this crazy environment,” Cuomo said. “We’re not going to use our children as guinea pigs.”
Also Monday, the United Nations warned that the pandemic could cause 130 million more people worldwide to go hungry this year. U.N. officials estimate there were about 690 million people who went hungry worldwide in 2019, with the majority in Asia and Africa.
In other parts of the world, the number of infections has been rising dramatically in India, South Africa and Brazil, whose president has tested positive.
The virus has killed almost 572,000 people worldwide, including more than 135,000 in the U.S.