Bridgeport is emerging as one of the hardest hit cities by the new surge in COVID-19 cases, with city schools changing to full-time distance learning.

All Bridgeport public schools will move to remote learning beginning Nov. 23. Some schools will start remote learning Nov. 16. Those schools include Barnum, Blackham, Columbus, Edison, Fairchild Wheeler IT and Waltersville.

City officials say they were in the process of moving the elementary schools to a hybrid model, but the rising number of cases forced their hand to close all the elementary and high school buildings.

Every student in the district has been provided with a device to help with remote learning, according to officials, and teachers will still go to their classrooms to teach their lessons. It's unknown for how long-distance learning will be.

But the district says it hopes to announce a timeline for moving forward three weeks from now.