School districts are set to again the fall semester in less than a month as the state continues to see record coronavirus numbers, superintendent of public instruction tony thursdayman said Distance Learning is the right decision for much of the state. I think if school had to open tomorrow, most of our districts would open in Distance Learning. Reporter several bay area districts announced plans to begin with full Distance Learning and move towards a hybrid approach. Some of the statest largest Public School districts, San Francisco, l. A. , and san diego, will start online only. We applaud the superintendent and the school board in los angeles and san diego for making the decision to say lets open safely. President trump railed against l. A. Officials, calling the move a terrible decision. The white house continues to push for schools to fully reopen. We want schools to be open, and they will be open, and theyll be open, i think, relatively ontime, hopefully on time most places. Reporter a new report recommends younger children and students with special needs should attend school in person if it can be done safely, the California Teachers Association said schools cannot reopen until they are safe. Cta said they need money from the state and federal government and additional training to close the Digital Divide for Distance Learning and to ensure the best outcomes. Trying to get the Digital Divide taken care of with broadband and that when we do open, it will be in the most safe environment that we are demanding. Thurman said there are still hundreds of thousands of students in the state without the devices that they need, and its unlikely that gap will be filled before classes again in the fall. He is expected to release new guidelines on standards moving forward. As greg mentioned, San FranciscoSchool Officials notified parents earlier today that fall instruction will begin next month with Distance Learning. Kristen joins us now live with more on this story. Thats right, heather, this is the news that teams in San Francisco have been waiting for, wanting to know one way or the other. Now parents know that theyre students will be learning from home, at least for now. Reporter San Francisco families learned that although school will start august 17th, students wont be in class. Many parents hearing it in the form of a voice mail. Our fall methodist her begin with Distance Learning. We know our entire Community Needs to make plans, so we wanted to share this news now, even as we are still finalizing more details. Reporter the district said it hopes to gradually move toward a hybrid approach with a combination of in class and Distance Learning when data suggests its safe to do so. Mark sanchez said the strict knows how difficult it will be for families, but the health and safety of students and staff, he says, has to be of paramount concern. Since the trending numbers are both going in the wrong direction, we look at not being able to open up with a City Health Order for quite a while until things really look better. Reporter dr. Colfax backed that up, saying the rates are trending in the wrong depression that students should stay out of class at least until those numbers turn around. So we will make the decision about whether it is safe to reopen those physical spaces, depending on where we stand with the virus and with our surge in the city when this time comes. San francisco schools are hoping to release a more detailed plan with more of the details on how theyre going to improve Distance Learning and how the rest of the school year is going to look. Theyre hoping that happens on july 28th. Still have very important decisions to be made there, christian, thank you. California keeps setting new records for coronavirus cases. The state saw a spike in numbers yesterday with more than 11,000 cases, an increase of more than 3 . Nearly 350,000 cases have now been reported, and there were more than or, excuse me, there were 140 more deaths yesterday. Thats an increase of more than 2 , and the second highest number recorded. More than 7,000 californians have died from covid19. The test Positivity Rate remains above 7 . Joining us now to talk more about this current spike that we are experiencing here in california is a doctor, internal medicine specialist. What do you think we can attribute this current spike that were experiencing to . Is it reopening too quickly . Some people looking at the calendar, were about 11 days out from the 4th of july holiday weekend. We are 11 days out from july 4th weekend, and i think that was a big thong do with it, because we know that people were socializing, and that has a direct effect on how were seeing covid19 infections rise now. There are essential workers and businesses who are not following protocol, so were seeing rise in cases due to that, also. Of all of the metrics that were analyzing here in our state, which ones concern you the most . Sift the hospitalizations . Because at last check, california has 6400 patients who are hospitalized with covid right now. Thats new high for the state, and that number is steadily rising. Does that mean that does that suggest were going to start to see more deaths from covid19 in the coming weeks . So its a little complicated, alex, and ill try to explain it here quickly. Basically mortality is dependent on what segment of the population is infected with covid. Right now we are seeing more young people get infected with covid, so you wont see the same mortality rate as someone who is old erin 65 or has underlying medical conditions, but we need to follow all metrics, because if we see our total number going up, that means that mortality rate is also going to be affected, because its not just young people who are going to be infected. Those young people will come in contact with people in the vulnerable population. Those people will get infected, and their mortality rate obviously can be higher. So we have to make sure that our hospitalization number stays low, because we dont want to mess up the health system. Earlier this week, we saw in the dramatic rollback in terms of reopenings in california in response to the rise in cases, the shutdown of all indoor operations at businesses. When do you think we might start to see the effects of this really what is essentially another modified lockdown . Right. If we actually do what were supposed to do and stay at home, and when we leave we mask, then maybe in the next four weeks, were going to see some good news. Weve been talking about flattening the curve for months now. We kind of stopped talking about it, because we had flattened the curve a few months ago, but now its more important than ever that we flatten the curve, and the only way well do 459 is if we stay at home, we mask and limit our exposure to people who are not in our immediate household. Doctor, we have a short amount of time left here, but before we wrap up, let me ask you about the testing troubles here in california. We heard yesterday from state officials, they will be sort of adjusting the guidelines for testing to prioritize those who have symptoms for covid19, and those who are more at risk for the virus. How effective do you think this strategy is going to be in terms of increasing testing, and then, also, trying to reduce the turnaround time for results . I think this is what we have to do to take immediate effect, because we are seeing a lag in testing and also seeing were not having enough supplies. So we have to strategize. Who are we going to test first we have to test people who are symptomatic, hospitalized, people who have been in close contact with them and work their way down. At the bottom of that, level 4, is going to be people who are asymptomatic and want to get tested because they think they might have been exposed to someone. All this will do is prioritize people who need to be tested so they dont in turn infect other people at a very large scale. Once the turn around time is less than 48 hours, we can Start Testing people in tier 4. Doctor, always appreciate you coming on. Thank you. Thank you, alex. The Trump Administration is now requiring hospitals to report their coronavirus data to a private Company Rather than the centers for disease control. Cdcs chief dr. Robert redfield said his agency has agreed to the move to streamline reporting. The company, Teletracking Technologies will now collect certain data including bed occupancy, staffing levels, ppe supply more. The cdc will collect other data including the number of cases and deaths directly from state Health Departments some say they are concerned that the Trump Administration is sidelining the cdc as a source of information. Some of twitters most prominent users hacked in a massive security breach. Up next what the hack promoted and the Ongoing Investigation into who is responsible. Plus reopening rules eased a bit in Alameda County after the state approved the countys request. Were going to talk live with a county supervisor about the change and what it means. And our break from the heat continues. Still track something fog near the coast. Coming up, well let you know if this cool to mild weather pattern conditions in your forecast. Must be lick Health Officials are now issuing new warnings about Wearing Masks. Casey stegall has the latest on what some of the hard e hit states are doing. Reporter hospitalizations are on the rise across the country with only a handful of states not seeing an increase in new coronavirus cases. Oklahoma and nevada are the latest states to experience a surge, while florida surpassed 300,000 new infections with the addition of 10,000 on wednesday. Testing centers in Miami Dade County seeing long lines of cars with some folks waiting nurse a test. We may have to take some dramatic measures if things dont improve over the next few weeks. Reporter it is forecast that the u. S. Coronavirus death tomorrow could reach 224,000 by the beginning of november. Researchers say that number could drop by more than 40,000 people in 95 of americans wore masks when leaving the home. Walmart is now the latest retailer to require face coverings from all coverings at all Stores Starting next week. Officials say now is not the time to let up on precautions. Covid19 is still here in chicago, and will be part of our future for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, a vaccine developed by moderna is showing prom this early human trials. All of the participants produced antibodies in the study. They made those at sometimes four times the a mount you would make if you had naturally gotten the virus. A phase 3 trial is set to begin at the end of this month. Casey stegall, fox news. Bay area weather, still talking about the same old set up. Low clouds and fog in the morning, finally giving away to sunshine in the afternoon hours, but you may have noticed a bit of haze over the past few hours. Well talk about that haze in just a little bit. Current numbers, it is still warm inland. At least were not talking about triple digits. San jose checking in at 80. Oakland 70, and up in the north bay for San Francisco and novato, upper 70s to low 80s. Looks like showers and thunderstorms developing out towards the sierra. Now for us, a bit of some haze moving in from some fires burning to the south. Especially this fire burning closer to fresno county. The mineral fire. 11,000 acres at last check. So some of that haze, mainly in the upper levels, is being pushed in from the south. Current winds still a breeze out there, fairfield, sustained out of the southwest, at about 21 miles an hour. Sfo not nearly as strong, and san jose only about 10 miles an hour. Patchy fog in the distance, and also some of that haze. Some of that chases link ed to fire. Into the afternoon hours, well be flirting with 90 degrees. At least were not talking about extreme heat this weekend. Oakland and hayward in the 70s and the coast mainly in the 60s. Well gradually warm things up in our fiveday forecast. Coming up, ill let you know in that could affect your weekend plans. The full update coming up in a few minutes. Well, earlier today, Alameda County announced that its variance has now been approved by the state. This means that certain activities can resume, including Outdoor Dining. However, face coverings are required at all times, and may only be removed during the physical act of eating or drinking. Ali county supervisors unanimously approved the Health Departments request for more immediate authority. Why did Alameda County not make this request months ago . The reason why can you hear me . Yes. Can you hear me . Yes, supervisor, we can. Okay. The reason we didnt make the request weeks ago is we were trying to prepare for a possible surge of the virus, and were trying not to open too quickly, until we had we knew that we had the hospital bed capacity, staff, and ppe. So we were trying to be very careful. And now that youve been given the green light from the state, how important is this . I think its important for two reasons. One is we had always felt that the oakland zoo was an outdoor museum, and it should be opened. Its a regional attraction for a lot of young family, and its all outdoors. Theyre shutting everything down indoors. And we had been doing Outdoor Dining for at least a month, and we were very surprised when the state shut it down. So these things will help. However, were still going to be very cautious about opening anything else. So aside from the oakland zoo, which will be able to resume Outdoor Activities and dining, anything else that this variance allows the county to move forward with . Room to consider other openings, but at this time, were going to listen to our Health Officer. Our Health Officer has suggested opening the zoo, and we have been doing Outdoor Dining. At this time, our Health Officer does not think we should be opening anything else, and i agree. We had another several hundred cases last night, six more deaths, and the virus is just seeming to be going out of control. So its really a privilege to be able to have these openings, but we have to be very, very careful. Right. Okay. So just to clarify, Outdoor Dining will now be allowed. And what again the status of the oakland zoo . We have the variance, so i imagine theyll be opening any day now. I dont know the exact date that theyll be opening. Okay. And you mentioned that obviously everyone is watching what is happening there in the county very closely. Will will be a time that the state might pull that variance . The state hasnt been pulling variances, because now all counties except for Imperial County have variances. However, we are on the monitor list for three weeks, site sort of hard for people to under to understand. The message i would like to give to the city, who really pushed us on this, they are in charge of enforcement of the state standards, so in terms of Small Businesses without Outdoor Dining, they are in charge of making sure that they follow the guidelines, and if they dont, theres going be ramifications for the entire county. Are you concerned that the county going to see an increase in cases as Outdoor Dining is allowed to continue . Well, we had Outdoor Dining for a while, and the zoo was open, so i dont really fear that those two activities are going to cause more cases, although i think generally opening does cause more cases. I think the problem were having is that while people are trying to be conscientious, there are a number of people who arent Wearing Masks or washing their hands, and who arent social distancing. Those things are the things that can really help drive the numbers, not down, but keep them under control. So we really need people to do that. And we need the Small Businesses to enforce that, as they reopen. Yeah, supervisor, those challenges not in any way unique to Alameda County, but well be watching what is happening there. Thank you for talking with us. We appreciate it. Coming up here on the 4, well have an update on the health of Supreme CourtJustice Ruth Bader ginsburg, who was hospitalized and underwent a medical procedure yesterday. And be sure to tune in tonight for master chef coming up at 8 00. Thats followed by an all new episode of the summer hit, ultimate tag at 9 00, and then join us for the 10 00 and 11 00 news right here on ktvu news. Awesome internet. Its more than just fast. It keeps all your devices running smoothly. With builtin security that protects your kids. No matter what theyre up to. It protects your info. And gives you 24 7 peace of mind. That if its connected, its protected. Even that that petcamera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that . Xfinity xfi can because its. 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