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Coronavirus Briefing: What Happened Today

California and its schools roll back reopenings.

This is the Coronavirus Briefing, an informed guide to the global outbreak. Sign up here to get the briefing by email.

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Credit...The New York Times

Los Angeles and San Diego Counties said schools would be online-only in the fall, citing a surge in infections that pose too much risk for students and teachers. The unified school districts, with around 825,000 students, are the largest so far in the U.S. to abandon plans for even a partial physical return.

“Those countries that have managed to safely reopen schools have done so with declining infection rates and on-demand testing available,” the counties said in a joint statement. “California has neither.”

The move is at odds with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who spent the weekend pushing for the Trump administration’s case to quickly reopen public schools. She downplayed the guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that called in-person classes the “highest risk” scenario for schools. Last week, President Trump threatened to cut off federal funding to schools that did not reopen fully.

The recommendations from the president and Ms. DeVos have been disputed by doctors and educators. Data from around the world suggests that children are far less likely to become seriously ill from the coronavirus than adults. But there are big unanswered questions, including how often children become infected and what role they play in transmitting the virus.


Many factors have contributed to the dire state of testing in the U.S., including surging case counts, overwhelmed labs and inadequate supplies. But there’s one bottleneck that is severely hampering the country’s response to the pandemic: an antiquated data collection system that relies on the humble fax machine.

Before the pandemic, nearly 90 percent of test results for diseases tracked by public health departments were sent digitally. But the high demand for coronavirus testing has brought many new clinics and companies into the world of public health — and not all of them have invested in the software that is required for secure electronic communication. Instead, they often turn to faxes, which are cheap and meet digital privacy standards.

But the blurry printouts have set back case reporting and contact tracing throughout the country. Results are often sent in duplicates, lack critical information like patients’ phone numbers and require manual data entry, which increases the risk of errors. “The data is moving slower than the disease,” one doctor in Houston said.

By the numbers. An average of 667,000 people per day were tested for the virus over the past week in the U.S. — far below the 1.9 million daily tests considered necessary to tamp down the nation’s outbreak. Only 12 states currently meet their testing targets — see whether yours is doing enough.


  • Hong Kong Disneyland was shut down again after a surge of new cases in the Chinese territory.

  • Oregon, once one of the most successful states in managing the coronavirus outbreak, is now seeing a surge of cases in rural areas. It added a record 389 new infections on Thursday.

  • U.S. military bases in Okinawa in Japan reported 94 cases, alarming the island’s local population, which has at times been at odds with the Americans stationed there, and has otherwise been successful at limiting virus transmission.

  • After a surge in cases and as it enters its coldest month, South Africa reinstated a ban on the sale and distribution of alcohol and reintroduced an overnight curfew.

  • The governor of Louisiana on Saturday ordered bars to close and most residents to wear masks outside after a spike in cases and hospitalizations.

Here’s a roundup of restrictions in all 50 states.



My extended family is scattered throughout the U.S. and the U.K. At the beginning of the pandemic, we began a group chat via text as a way to keep in touch. Lately, we have been posting family photos, and are currently playing a game called “name that cousin.” One of us posts a baby picture of a family member and we all have to guess who it is. This is followed by more current pictures of the same person and a great deal of hilarity.

— Deborah Fetterhoff, Newport Beach, Calif.

Let us know how you’re dealing with the outbreak. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter.

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Jonathan Wolfe is a news producer for “The Daily.” Previously, he was a reporter covering New York City. For nearly three years, he wrote the daily morning column “New York Today.” More about Jonathan Wolfe

Lara Takenaga is a staff editor for the Reader Center. More about Lara Takenaga

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