California officially announced canceling the 2019-2020 school year on Wednesday, as the U.S. state is trying to flatten the upward trending curve of COVID-19.

During a daily briefing, California Governor Gavin Newsom said the schools in the state would remain closed for the rest of the academic year, while at the same time, distance learning will continue. About six million students would be affected by the decision.

Meanwhile, he also announced that Google is creating 100,000 points of access to provide internet and broadband capacity to make distance learning easier for the students.

The governor said at Wednesday's briefing that the state had 8,155 confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which 774 were in ICUs.

California is not the first U.S. state to cancel the school year or extend the stay-at-home guideline indefinitely. According to The Washington Post, at least 10 states have canceled the rest of the school year. Besides California, there are also Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Virginia, Vermont and Georgia.

According to the data of the World Health Organization, as of Thursday afternoon, there were over 856,000 confirmed cases around the globe, and the death toll was above 41,000. In the U.S., over 187,000 cases have been confirmed.

Cover image: Distance learning is in trend as schools close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. /VCG