California’s state university system, the largest in the United States, canceled classes on Tuesday for the fall semester because of the coronavirus, while Los Angeles County said its stay-at-home order was likely to be extended by three months, Reuters reported.
The announcements on the West Coast came after the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Congress that lifting the sweeping lockdowns could touch off new outbreaks of the illness, which has killed nearly 81,000 Americans and devastated the economy.
In one of the first indications the pandemic will continue to have a significant impact into autumn, the chancellor of California State University said classes at its 23 campuses would be canceled for the semester that begins in September, with instruction moved online.
“Our university, when open without restrictions and fully in person, as is the traditional norm of the past, is a place where over 500,000 people come together in close and vibrant proximity with each other on a daily basis,” the chancellor, Timothy White, said in a statement.
Los Angeles County Health Director Barbara Ferrer added her own grim forecast, saying stay-at-home curbs for 10 million residents, including the city of Los Angeles, would probably remain in place, in some form, through the summer.
“While the Safer at Home orders will remain in place over the next few months, restrictions will be gradually relaxed,” under a planned reopening of the local economy as the outbreak ebbs, she said.
Her remarks came after California Governor Gavin Newsom said restaurants in parts of the state could again begin allowing diners inside under modified conditions and outdoor shopping malls could be permitted to open for curbside pickup.
Offices in parts of California can also open with some limitations, Newsom told a daily news briefing. But his latest plan for restarting the world’s fifth-largest economy keeps nail salons, tattoo parlors and fitness clubs closed.
“It’s a mistake to overpromise what re-opening means,” said Newsom, a Democrat who was the first governor to issue statewide stay-at-home orders and has been more cautious in relaxing them than counterparts in other states.
Earlier, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a U.S. Senate panel that prematurely ending restrictions on commerce and social life could have dire consequences.
“I think we’re going in the right direction, but the right direction does not mean we have by any means total control of this outbreak,” Fauci said during the hearing.
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