Glance at Covid-19:
As of Sept 26, 2020, Covid-19 is still continuing its spread around the world, with the death toll quickly approaching almost one million. Dr. Mike Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies head, has warned that the figure could be reach two million before wide spread vaccine implementation.
The total confirmed cases of the world as we come to the end the end of September is 32.5 million, the country with the fastest spreading of virus is India – recording about 90,000 new cases per day in early and mid-September. In Latin American Continent, Brazil has the third highest confirmed cases world while Argentina sees daily cases quickly rising. Due to the limited testing capabilities, Africa has more than 1.3 million total, but the true extent of the pandemic remains unknown. Following the loosening lockdown restrictions, some countries that once had the spread in control are seeing resurgence again, including Israel, Russia, South Korea, Peru, and Australia. Tougher restrictions are re-imposed to decrease the rising numbers and have seen some success.
Beginning this week, Google Maps will soon be updated with a new function to show the prevalence of Covid-19 in their users’ area, displaying seven-day averages of new Covid-19 cases. With the data received from WHO or other public health organizations, the rate of cases increasing or decreasing will be color coded, hopefully to help people make more informed decisions on where to go, and to contain the spread of virus on a global scale.
Virtual learning upends challenges for students with special needs
As many schools stayed away from in-person instructions in the new school year, online learning has became the new struggle for students with special needs. In the United States, there are roughly 7 million students who qualify for individualized education plan(IEP) with specifically tailored accommodation at school. However, with the transformation in teaching method, many of these students find their education is less than what they are legally promised to receive. Furthermore, parents of such students also face greater burden in providing the only outside help and assistance such as making sure their children logged into classes on time and stayed focused, especially for those families who cannot afford outside services to help the child at home.
Kristin Liskow, a special education teacher in New York, has stated that some of her students managed to remotely participate, but most of them are without any consistency. Despite with some disappointment and frustration in the new learning system, many IEP instructors had tried hard to find new ways to support their students to achieve promising education.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51235105
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/24/tech/google-maps-coronavirus/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/24/health/special-needs-students-online-learning-wellness/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/06/us/coronavirus-special-needs-education-wellness/index.html
Written by Jinxin