Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog, both also at the top in Black digital news in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM, COLUMBUS, Ohio –Ohio and Michigan became the first states to close K-12 schools in response to the coronavirus outbreak last month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announcing Monday that schools in Ohio will now remain closed for the remainder of the academic school year.

The school closings order pertains to all public, private, voucher and charter K-12 schools in Ohio.

The governor said at a press conference when he closed the schools last month that Ohio's school children will have an extended spring break for three weeks beginning with the close of school on Monday, March 16, and tentatively ending April 3.

April 3 has since come and gone.

The governor said Monday that his decision to keep the schools closed follows advice from educators and health officials and that “we have flattened the curve, but it remains dangerous.”

The indefinite school closings come as the governor prepares to reopen Ohio when his stay-at-home order issued last month expires on May 1, though he gave no specifics on how he will restart Ohio's economy, which he says will go into a recession unless Ohioans are allowed to go back to work.

Ohio has reported more than 12,919 confirmed coronavirus cases and 509 deaths.

Worldwide there are currently more than 2.4 million confirmed cases and 1.6 million deaths, with the U.S. accounting for some 789,000 cases, and 1,723 deaths.

DeWine's decision to lift his stay-at-home order when it expires early next month, a decision he said could change in spite of the deadly virus reaching its peak in Ohio and beginning to level off, follows protests at the statehouse demanding that the governor get businesses and people back to work, similar protests occurring across the nation, including in North Carolina and neighboring Kentucky and Michigan, Michigan of which follows New York and New Jersey as states with the most cases and deaths.

President Trump, a Republican like DeWine, and his political ally, announced Thursday that he supports reopening the nation on May 1, if not earlier in some states, and in phases, and that governors will retain the autonomy to decide how and when their respective states will reopen.

The president has since advocated for nationwide protests in support of his demand to reopen the country as his poll numbers relative to his reelection bid in November against presumptive Democratic nominee former president Joe Biden continue to fall.

And while federal guidelines have been issued by the president for reopening the economy in respective states utilizing a three- phase process, some governors say the guidelines are vague, and that questions still remain.

The president's foes and some experts say it is too soon and literally dangerous to reopen America right now, a decision complicated by a lack of coronavirus testing and testing resources, and inadequate contact tracing.

They say that reopening the economy is an effort by the president to shift his responsibilities to the states so he can blame governors for growing dissatisfaction on how his administration has handled the fallout from the virus.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, associate publisher

Pictured are Ohio Democratic Congresspersons Marcia L. Fudge (wearing tan brown suit )(D-11) and Marcy Kaptur (wearing teal suit) (D-9), and Greater Cleveland RTA (GCRTA) CEO and General Manager India Birdsong (wearing Black suit)

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's

most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog, both also top in black digital news in the Midwest.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

WASHINGTON, D.C./CLEVELAND, Ohio –Ohio Congresswomen Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) and Marcy Kaptur (OH-9), Democrats whose congressional districts include parts of Cleveland, announced Thursday roughly $111 million for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) as a result of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, the federal relief act passed last month by Congress that includes in the legislation $25 billion to support transit agencies and their workers nationwide.

The federal lawmakers said that funding from the CARES Act will be used in part to protect the jobs of the employees of greater Cleveland's transit agency like GCRTA bus drivers and will fund their paychecks during the coronavirus pandemic, a public heath emergency, they say.

Ohio, which has 88 counties statewide and currently has some confirmed 7, 628 coronavirus cases and 346 deaths, will ultimately receive $474,118,324 under the program.

The second largest of Ohio's counties, Cuyahoga County is 29 percent Black and includes Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs, and has reported 1,281 cases and 39 deaths, 335 of those cases in Cleveland, a largely Black major American city led by four-term mayor Frank Jackson, the city's third Black mayor.

Cleveland has only six coronavirus deaths under Jackson's leadership, if statistics on the deadly disease are attributed at all to local and county, and state and federal leaders or, in other words, mayors, county officials, governors and the president.

Worldwide there are 2.1 million cases and more than 137,000 deaths, the U.S. leading all other countries with 646,398 cases and 28,640 deaths, not good numbers for incumbent Republican president Donald Trump, who will face presumptive Democratic nominee former vice president Joe Biden for a November general election showdown over who will be the president of the United States in 2021.

The Federal Transit Association (FTA) has specifically directed agencies that they can use the CARES Act dollars for emergency protective measures to eliminate or lessen threats to public health and safety in bus shelters and other high traffic areas, and for personal protective health equipment and other protective measures.

“As the spread of COVID-19 contributes to reduced ridership and cut backs for transit systems across the country, we must ensure that residents in the greater Cleveland area can continue to rely on RTA to get to and from work, grocery stores, pharmacies and other locations deemed essential during the pandemic,” said Rep. Fudge, a former chair of the congressional Black caucus and former national president of Delta, Sigma Theta Sorority Inc who leads Ohio's largely Black 11th congressional district, which includes Cleveland. “The CARES package was a good start to supporting our regional transportation system and its employees, but more may be needed."

The longest serving woman in Congress, Rep Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat whose ninth congressional district extends to Cleveland, said financial assistance from the federal government is crucial to the survival of transit agencies nationally at this critical time in American history.

She applauded the patience and commitment of its bus drivers and other employees during the coronavirus outbreak.

Transit agencies across the U.S. have all seen a dramatic drop in revenues as social distancing has been implemented nationally.

Greater Cleveland has been impacted like other major metropolitan areas hit by the deadly virus as stay-at-home orders issued in Ohio and 42 other states by governors and public health officials, whether necessary or not, induce fear, perpetuate economic decline, and create further transportation barriers to poor people, minorities in general, and Black people, Cleveland's RTA buses seeing hardly no riders as the pandemic begins to flatten its curve.

"On behalf of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) we'd like to thank Representative Marcy Kaptur and Representative Marcia Fudge and the Ohio Congressional delegation for your prompt support of the CARES Act," said GCRTA CEO and General Manager India Birdsong. "As hundreds of thousands of greater Clevelanders follow the state and federal mandates, including the governor's stay-at-home orders, ridership has dropped, and GCRTA has seen a significant loss in sales tax and fare revenue, as a result."

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog, both also top in black digital news in the Midwest.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.