CHICAGO, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Teachers in dozens of school districts protested Monday from their cars against plans by some US governors to resume classroom attendance despite the persistence of the coronavirus pandemic, while in Arizona , Florida, California and Texas registered decreases in new infections.
A sign saying “No to reopening of schools until it is safe!” in the car of a participant in a teachers’ protest caravan against the resumption of classroom assistance during the outbreak of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Los Angeles, California, United States, on 3 August 2020.
The teachers, who painted protest messages on their cars and drove around with other school workers, want classes to take place virtually until tests show that classrooms are safe and districts hire more nurses and counselors. schoolchildren.
The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, the union that represents state school teachers across the state, posted photos on Twitter of protesters making headstones with messages like, “Here lies a third-grader from Green Bay who got infected. of COVID at school ”and“ Rest in peace the grandmother who died of COVID helping her grandchildren with their homework ”.
Teachers from the states of Chicago, Milwaukee and Philadelphia blew the horns of their cars during the march. In Los Angeles protests were concentrated in front of the Chamber of Commerce building, while in Connecticut some 400 people marched with their vehicles in front of the house of the Governor, Ned Lamont.
“I don’t want to put my students or myself in danger. I don’t want to be an experiment, ”Chicago elementary school teacher Andrea Parker told the media.
More than 155,000 people have died across the country from COVID-19 since the virus was first detected in the United States in January. Cases nationwide decreased for the second consecutive week, but increased week-over-week in 20 states, including Missouri, Montana, and Oklahoma.
Deaths in the United States increased for the fourth consecutive week by more than 8,500 people through August 2.
CASES COME DOWN IN THE SUN BELT
Arizona, California, Florida and Texas, some of the states with the largest population in the country, recorded decreases in positives for COVID-19 and fewer hospitalizations.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said admissions to intensive care units had also declined in his state, but that it was too early to celebrate.
“This virus is not going to go away,” Newsom said at a briefing. “You are not going to take free Labor Day, or Halloween, or the holidays. Until we have a vaccine, we are going to live with this virus. ”
Newsom said the decline was not enough to warrant a change in the restrictions that force state schools to start August by teaching classes virtually.
Schools are at the center of negotiations between Democrats in Congress and President Donald Trump’s Administration on a bill to help mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus. Democratic leaders and White House negotiators said Monday that they had made progress in those negotiations, although the government said Trump could act only if an agreement is not reached. [L1N2F50O6]
With Democrat Joe Biden leading the way in polls ahead of the November presidential election, Trump, the Republican party, has made the reopening of schools part of his campaign for reelection.
Information from Brendan O’Brien and Lisa Shumaker in Chicago, Gabriella Borter and Maria Caspani in New York and Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; written by Grant McCool and Dan Whitcomb; edited by Howard Goller and Stephen Coates; translated by Andrea Ariet in Gdansk
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