By : Lexie Blakeman
Staff Writer
In the United States, as of April 3rd, there have been 6,068 total deaths, doubling every three days according to patch.com. In California alone, there have been over 200 deaths caused by Coronavirus, doubling every three days according to the Los Angeles Times. Schools in California should remain closed for the remainder of the year due to the widespread outbreak of the coronavirus.
According to the Los Angeles Times, all schools in California, public and private, are currently shut down until further notice. It would not make sense to put children back into school surrounded by students that could have the virus without knowing and infecting them. Putting students back into school puts them at risk of spreading it amongst each other and their families.
Most schools in California will likely remain closed for the rest of the school year because of the new coronavirus according to Gov. Gavin Newsom. This is because California hospitals are expecting to see a surge of people affected by the virus in the next three months. However they are not prepared to treat nor have the facilities to care for the amount of patients that will need it. This makes it extremely important for people to stay inside their homes and follow social distancing which will be impossible to follow if students go back to school.
Hospitals in California need 50,000 hospital beds, 1 billion rubber gloves, and hundreds of millions of masks and gowns for healthcare workers to protect themselves according to Governor Newsom on Business Insider. It would be shortsighted to open schools back up during a time when healthcare workers already don’t have enough supplies to treat the patients who are already in need of treatment while the numbers of affected are constantly rising. If students return to school, social distancing will not be practiced,meaning there is a much larger chance of more people contracting the virus.
It is necessary for everyone to practice social distancing and stay inside. The shorter-term school closures will likely make little difference, closing schools for eight weeks or more would be more effective according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the CDC’s coronavirus guidelines for schools the decision is ultimately in the hands of school administrations and local health officials.
It would be imprudent for students to attend school again until the virus has cleared out of the local area and interacting in large groups is safe again. Due to how easily this virus can be spread it would be best advisable for the well-being of California residents to stay out of public settings where they are around large groups of people, schools being one of the most interactive places should remain teaching through distance-learning.
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