Coronavirus: LA Community College District To Give Out 3,000 Laptops Amid Switch To Online Classes

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – As nearly all Southern California schools and colleges contend with switching to online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, 300 free laptops were given out to Los Angeles Community College District students Sunday, with hundreds more on the way.

The laptops were handed out in a drive-up process at the district's downtown L.A. Headquarters.

To qualify, students had to preregister online and then apply for a specific scholarship to get approved. The 300 handed out Sunday were the first of about 3,000 laptops which are being given out, LACCD reports.

Online classes are scheduled to begin March 30 for LACCD's nine colleges.

Also Sunday, the district confirmed that a student at East L.A. College tested positive for coronavirus. The student is believed to have been exposed to the virus while at UCLA the week of March 8. The student was last on the East L.A. College campus on March 12.

As a result, all East L.A. College faculty and staff who were scheduled to return to campus on March 23 were ordered to continue working remotely.

L.A. County health officials announced a whopping 71 new COVID-19 cases Sunday, bringing the county's total to 409, including five deaths.