New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sunday that public schools are set to reopen in phases for in-person learning starting December 7.
In-person learning at preschools, 3-K programs and elementary schools will open on that date.
Then schools that serve children with special educational needs, known as District 75 schools, will open on December 10 and middle schools and high schools will reopen at a later, yet to be determined, date.
The schools, which make up the country’s largest school system, have been closed since November 19 after the citywide rate of coronavirus tests coming back positive exceeded the three percent benchmark agreed to by the mayor and the teachers’ union.
‘It’s a new approach because we have so much proof now of how safe schools can be,’ De Blasio said at Sunday’s coronavirus briefing, saying the three percent benchmark was being scrapped.
‘We feel confident that we can keep schools safe,’ he added.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Sunday that public schools are set to reopen in phases for in-person learning starting December 7
The mayor’s office said the city will move towards providing in-person learning five days per week.
The mayor estimated that some 190,000 students enrolled in the public schools will be eligible to return the week of December 7 and returning students must have a parent consent form.
When the schools reopen, weekly coronavirus testing will take place for students and faculty.
In a conference call with reporters Sunday afternoon Gov. Andrew Cuomo supported De Blasio’s decision saying data backs keeping kids in school if it’s safe to do so.
‘I think New York City opening schools is the right direction and the right decision. I think schools should be open,’ Cuomo said.
‘You have literally across the globe world health organization officials, European experts, American experts, they all say that the infection rate in schools, as long as it’s under control and below the community level, it’s better for children to be in school. It’s less disruptive for the students, it’s less disruptive for the parents. Schools are literally safer,’ Cuomo reiterated.
As of Saturday New York City has reported more than 289,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 19,580 deaths.
De Blasio announced Sunday that the citywide percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 has a seven day rolling average of 3.9 percent.
Nationally, there have been more than 13million COVID-19 cases reported and more than 266,000 deaths.
However, not all New Yorkers are on board with the Mayor’s plans. Many parents voiced their outrage on social media following the announcement as the trajectory of the virus only grows more somber, exacerbated by holiday travel.
‘@NYCMayor is going to kill our kids in NYC. Reopening schools due to political pressure, rather than based on science and current virus trends. We’re spiking like crazy, we’re heading towards we’re we were in March/April. And he reopens schools,’ one Twitter user said.
‘Bruh.. Make up your mind. Cases are rising you closed schools originally because we passed the threshold. Case counts continue to rise every single day. Make up your mind, it’s not fair to parents, teachers, and most importantly the students,’ another Twitter user added.
Schoolteacher Melissa Wong packs up the classroom that she appropriated for virtual teaching just a couple of months earlier at Yung Wing School P.S. 124 in New York City on November 19
The news comes as the nation’s COVID-19 hospitalizations are skyrocketing.
The number of coronavirus patients currently being treated in hospitals across the country has nearly doubled in the last month alone with more than 91,000 over the Thanksgiving weekend.
As of Saturday 91,635 Americans were hospitalized with the virus, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
The rate of hospitalizations, which has reached its highest level since the start of the pandemic, comes after weeks of rising infection rates nationwide.
Now health officials fear that holiday travel starting with Thanksgiving will only fuel the surge.
Dr Celine Gounder, a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, offered a grave warning about forthcoming spikes on Saturday.
Dr Celine Gounder, a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, warned on Saturday that many Americans who celebrated Thanksgiving with family and friends could end up in the hospital or ICU by Christmas
‘We fully expect that in about a week or two after Thanksgiving we will see an increase in cases first, then about a week or two later you’ll start to see an increase in hospitalizations, and then another week or two after that you’ll start to see deaths,’ Gounder told CBS News, noting that symptoms of the virus can develop up to 14 days after exposure.
‘Unfortunately, that means that many people who celebrated with family, with friends over Thanksgiving will find themselves in the hospital, in ICUs over Christmas and New Years,’ she added.
The day before Thanksgiving is usually one of the busiest travel days of the year in the US.
This year, more than 1.07 million people passed through US airports – the most of any single day since the start of the pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Nearly six million Americans traveled by air in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, the TSA said. However, that’s less than half of the numbers of travelers who flew for the holidays during the same period last year.
The US has recorded more than 100,000 new cases each day for the past 25 days
US deaths are expected to spike in the coming weeks, with the CDC predicting up to 321,000 by December 19
With cases, hospitalizations and deaths already skyrocketing across the US, health officials are warning the worst is yet to come given the true impact of Thanksgiving travel and gatherings won’t be seen for a few weeks like with other holidays
While it will take weeks for the impact of the holiday travel to become clear, states are already buckling under staggering spikes in coronavirus cases.
Thirty states posted record daily new cases in the days before Thanksgiving and 16 states – Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington and West Virginia – reported record seven-day averages for new cases on Thursday and Friday.
The seven-day rolling average for US deaths is currently just over 1,400 and the average for daily infections is just shy of 160,400.