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Gyms, fitness centers start to reopen after official announcement by governor | News

Gyms and fitness centers officially reopen their doors to patrons for the first time in almost six months.

Even though gyms can legally reopen, many fitness centers are still preparing to let customers back in.

“It’s great being back open and seeing all the regulars. Being able to see some friendly faces back in the club,” said Alex Marion, manager at Burton Planet Fitness.

It’s been a long six months for people like Marion.

On Wednesday, Sept. 9, Marion was able to reopen to the public.

Strict safety measures will be in place to limit the spread of COVID-19, including requiring all gym-goers to wear masks always and limiting the capacity to 25 percent.

Marion said staff has been fully trained on how to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

“We’ve increased our cleaning standards. We are using disinfectant that’s on the EPA’s list of cleaners that are able to treat

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Fitness
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Top PA Health Official ‘Optimistic’ For In-Person Fall Start

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania health officials affirmed Thursday that the state remains committed to reopening schools for in-person learning this fall, stressing that the actions we take now will determine the safety of the environment when children and teachers return to the classrooms.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, speaking during a Thursday news conference, said the state maintains its goal “right now” is that schools will be open for in-person learning this fall. She noted many districts are planning varying degrees of in-person instruction, including hybrid or matrix models.

“We are going to stay positive and optimistic that there will be in-person school when school opens in August and we’ll be working towards that,” Levine said.

But, she stressed, there are things we can do now to ensure that goal happens, like wearing masks and following the governor’s mitigation guidelines.

“That’s why the mitigation efforts we have talked about

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Health
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Pasco Schools To Delay Start Of School 2 Weekss

LAND O’ LAKES, FL — At least one Tampa Bay school district won’t be sending students back to school April 10.

Pasco County School Superintendent Kurt Browning recommended a two-week delay to the start of the school year, with students returning to school on Aug. 24 instead of Aug. 10. Teachers will return to work on Aug. 17.

The school board unanimously approved Browning’s recommendation at Tuesday’s Pasco County School Board meeting. Pasco is the first Tampa Bay school district to delay the start of the school year. The Hillsborough County School Board is expected to make a similar decision on Thursday.

The decision comes two days after a popular Seven Springs Middle School sixth-grade teacher died from the coronavirus.

“Here in Pasco County, we share the health and safety concerns being expressed by parents, students and teachers,” said Browning who was also diagnosed with the coronavirus over the summer.

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Health
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Illinois Teachers Union Says School Year Should Start Online

WESTMONT, IL — The union representing teachers in Illinois called for the school year to begin with remote learning. A return to in-person instruction is currently too risky, according to the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

In a statement issued Monday, the statewide teachers union provided a list of 10 safety measures that every school district and college needs for its members to feel safe returning to the classroom. Too many schools cannot achieve “critical safety benchmarks,” it said.

“We arrived at this position by having talked to our members extensively about how do we do this,” Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery said in the statement. “Our primary concern is keeping everybody safe — not only our members, but our students, their families and their communities. At this point, our recommendation is that schools should return to online or remote learning for the beginning of the school year. It

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Health
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Solano County Students To Start New School Year Online

SOLANO COUNTY, CA — As California Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out back-to-school guidelines for K-12 students across the state Friday, saying that students in counties on the state’s coronavirus monitoring list must start the school year online, the Solano County Office of Education confirmed all K-12 students in Solano County will start the school year with distance learning.

“Previously, some Solano County school districts and charter schools made plans to reopen school campuses with varying models of social distancing, modified schedules, and distance learning options for students,” SCOE Spokeswoman Jennifer Leonard said Friday in a news release.

“However, the newly issued orders require that schools located in counties on the state’s County Monitoring List must begin the school year with distance learning from home,” Leonard said. “Solano County is currently on the state’s County Monitoring List due to recent increased in COVID-19 cases.”

As to when students in Solano and

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Health
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Douglas County To Start 2020 School Year With Online Only

DOUGLASVILLE, GA — Douglas County schools will start the fall term offering online learning only, joining a growing number of Georgia districts that plan to keep kids out of classrooms for their own safety.

School will also start a week later than originally planned — on Aug. 17 instead of Aug. 10 — to allow extra time to issue learning devices to students and for teacher preparation.

Superintendent Trent North said in an email to parents Thursday that he made the decisions “after consultation with Cobb & Douglas Public Health and careful consideration of the health and safety of students and staff.” The letter is posted to the Douglas County School System’s website.

“The school system is authorized to make this independent decision based on the Executive Order issued by Governor Brian Kemp,” North said in the email. “I will share our decision with the Georgia Department of Education.”

North

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Health
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PA Teachers Union Urges State To Plan For Online Start To School

HARRISBURG, PA — Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union is asking state officials to direct public schools to plan for an online start to school if the spread of the coronavirus doesn’t slow by the fall.

Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey, in a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera, said it is “extremely important for Pennsylvania’s public schools to plan for the distinct possibility that further increases in COVID-19 cases will make it impossible to safely reopen Pennsylvania’s schools for in-person instruction.”

Askey, in his letter, emphasized that educators want to return to the classroom. However, health risks associated with COVID-19 “may be impossible to prevent in school buildings if the current increase in Pennsylvania cases continues.”

He pointed to an “increasing number of Pennsylvania educators and parents” who are concerned that reopening schools for in-person instruction poses significant health risks.

The full letter can

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Health
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As Trump pressures schools to reopen, California’s 2 largest school districts say they’re going to start online only in the fall

President Trump is seen outside the White House on July 11, 2020.
President Trump is seen outside the White House on July 11, 2020.

Joshua Roberts/Getty

  • The Los Angeles and San Diego unified school systems said they’ll be starting the fall semester off online in a joint statement. 

  • The announcement comes after President Donald Trump said he’d pressure states to reopen in-person classes in the fall. 

  • The two districts have a combined total of 700,000 students, according to NPR.

  • On Monday, public health officials in Los Angeles County announced 2,593 new cases of COVID-19 and 13 new deaths.

  • Other counties, like Orange County, California, voted on Monday to reopen schools without measures requiring masks or increased social distancing.

  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The Los Angeles and San Diego unified school systems announced that they’ll be going online only at the start of the fall semester, according to a joint statement.

“One fact is clear: those countries that have managed

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Health
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2 biggest California districts say school will start online

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles and San Diego school districts, the two largest in California with a combined K-12 student population of about 720,000, announced Monday they won’t bring students back to classrooms next month because of rising coronavirus hospitalizations and infection rates.

School leaders said there is too much uncertainty surrounding the safety of students and staff to try to return pupils to classrooms right away so they will continue the distance learning that was employed for the final months of the spring semester.

“There’s a public health imperative to keep schools from becoming a petri dish,” said Austin Beutner, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District — the second-largest public school district in the country. “The health and safety of all in the school community is not something we can compromise.”

In a letter to parents, Cindy Marten, superintendent of the San Diego Unified School

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Health
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L.A. and San Diego school districts to start the year online

The two largest school districts in California announced Monday that classes will be online-only at the start of the school year, citing “skyrocketing infection rates” of the coronavirus in their areas.

The Los Angeles and San Diego unified school districts, which issued a joint announcement, will begin online instruction in mid-August but will “continue planning for a return to in-person learning during the 2020-21 academic year, as soon as public health conditions allow.”

Los Angeles Unified, the country’s second-largest school district with roughly 700,000 students, will begin instruction Aug. 18; San Diego Unified, which serves more than 100,000 students, is set to start Aug. 31.

“There’s a public health imperative to keep schools from becoming a petri dish,” Austin Beutner, the school superintendent in Los Angeles, said in a video message posted online.

In the joint announcement, the school districts said the research around coronavirus-era school safety remains “incomplete,” and

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Health