As the United States begins to head toward the new school year, government and health officials are debating whether it's safe or not for children to engage in in-person schooling. States across the country are preparing plans for either fully in-person teaching, fully remote learning, or somewhere in between with the decisions seeming to depend on the different needs and severity of the outbreak in the state.
In some cities like Los Angeles, California, students will start the school year with total remote education, while in New York City, public school districts plan to have at least some present learning. President Donald Trump has also been a big advocate for in-person learning this fall, although he has made some false statements about children being immune to the virus.
According to new reports by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association, more than 388,000 children have tested positive for the coronavirus since the U.S. outbreak began back in March. Alarmingly, over 97,000 new cases were reported during the two week period of July 16-30, with new infections cropping up throughout the country.
While testing has increased in recent months, and is including a wider range of ages, the acceleration of child infections is concerning due to the uncertainty of the novel coronavirus. The study noted the severe illness and death from COVID infection in children is rare, but it does occur, making the school year question all the more difficult to answer as the coming season looms ahead.
Early Signs of Recovery
Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE: RCL) noted in their second quarter earnings report on Monday that they have experienced "remarkable" demand for international cruises in 2021, which helped offset the blow from its $1.6 billion loss and cash burn rate in excess of $250 million per month.
"We have been both humble and surprised with the amount of booking we're seeing for 2021 with literally no marketing efforts. And frankly, very little good news," CEO Richard Fain said on a conference call, quoted by CNBC. "But the tone of our bookings, especially as we get into the second half of 2021, has been encouraging. Our guests want to come back."
Major U.S. airlines--Alaska (NYSE: ALK), American (NASDAQ: AAL), Delta (NYSE: DAL), JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU), Southwest (NYSE: LUV) and United (NASDAQ: UAL) have also begun to rebound from their flatlines during the peak of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak back in April. The Transportation Security Administration announced that its checkpoints had screened more than 800,000 people on Sunday for the first time since the beginning of the outbreak in March, according to Reuters.
While that amount of passengers is down roughly 70% year-to-year, it is an encouraging sign towards recovery as Americans begin to become more comfortable with air travel again. According to Reuters, the largest 20 U.S. airlines flew about 16.3 million passengers in June, a small amount when compared to 2019 but nearly twice as many that traveled in May and far from April's low of approximately 3 million.