Dear Governor Newsom,

As a parent of two children attending California schools and as a spouse of a California school employee, I implore you to close the schools now.

WHO has designated novel Coronavirus as a pandemic. China reduced the infection rate by quarantining a major portion of their population. Korea managed it by testing massively. Italy ignored the warnings and is battling a worse epidemic with close to 12,000 people infected and close to 1000 people dead. Their hospitals are overwhelmed and are pushed to an unfortunate situation of choosing whom to treat and whom not to, depending on their chances of survival.

Our goal must be to keep the infection rate low so that our hospitals and healthcare workers are not overwhelmed.

We are in a dire situation in America. We do not have enough testing kits. So, the only option in front us is to push towards social distancing. While many big companies  have asked their employees to work from home and many UCs have cancelled classes, these measures are largely pointless if schools still remain open.

You have prepared the ground well by proactively getting approval to continue meal program for school children. Please follow through and close the schools now.

We trust you to do the right thing for California, we sincerely believe that the right thing now is to close the schools.

I will end this petition with this tweet by Paul Graham
 
@paulg
When you're dealing with exponential growth, the time to act is when it feels too early.

Sincerely,

Shankar Parasaram