Live updates: California universities move to virtual instruction for the Fall; U.S. coronavirus death toll surpasses 81,500
May 12, 2020 / By Lateshia Beachum, John Wagner, Kim Bellware, Marisa Iati, Siobhán O’Grady, Miriam Berger, Ruby Mellen, Meryl Kornfield, Samantha Pell and Candace Buckner
California State University, with 23 campuses and more than 480,000 students, on Tuesday became the largest university system in the country to declare that it intends to go without in-person instruction for most classes in the fall because of the public health crisis. Exceptions could be made for laboratory-intensive courses and certain others, but officials said the decision would affect most students in the system. The announcement from CSU Chancellor Timothy White came during a meeting of the system’s governing board.
Meantime, top federal health officials testified at a Senate hearing on whether the country is truly ready to reopen, as the U.S. death toll surpassed 81,500 on Tuesday. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, warned that “consequences could be really serious” if states move too quickly. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the committee that social distancing remains “imperative” for Americans.
Here are some significant developments:
- House Democrats unveiled a coronavirus rescue bill Tuesday that would direct more than $3 trillion for state and local governments, health-care systems, a second round of stimulus checks and a range of other priorities. Republicans rejected the legislation even before they saw it.
- Los Angeles’s stay-at-home orders are likely to be extended for three months, the county’s top public health official said.
- U.S. stock markets plunged about 2 percent, as investors weighed the possibility of a coronavirus resurgence as states move to reopen their economies. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 457 points.
- President Trump and Vice President Pence for the time being are likely to keep away from each other because of the coronavirus cases that have arisen among White House personnel in recent days, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed.
- Authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan plan to test all 11 million residents by the end of next week in a massive push to extinguish any remnants of the virus from the outbreak’s original epicenter.
