New York Post, Saturday, November 14, 2020nypost.comoutbreak
By NolaN Hicks
and Natalie MusuMeciParents should brace themselves
for New York City public schools
to close for in-person learning as
early as Monday amid a spike in
coronavirus infections, Mayor
de Blasio warned on Friday.
“This is not something that any
parent wants to have to deal with,
but we should get ready [for
school closures],” de Blasio said
during his weekly appearance on
WNYC radio’s “The Brian Lehrer
Show.”
Hizzoner suggested that parents
“have a plan for the rest of the
month of November” in the event
that in-person learning is sus-
pended and all students must be-
gin switching to remote learning.
“I think that’s the safe way to
think about it. Have an alterna-
tive plan, beginning as early as
Monday, for whatever will help
get through this month if school
is not open,” he said.
De Blasio insisted that should
public-school buildings close, it
would be temporary.
“We would close the schools
temporarily, and I want to em-
phasis temporarily,” de Blasio
said. “If we reach that point, then
the goal is to bring them back as
quickly as possible.”
The caution comes as the city
inches closer and closer to a
3 percent infection rate on a sev-
en-day rolling average.
The de Blasio administration
has said that once the citywide
COVID-19 infection rate tops
3 percent on the seven-day roll-
ing average, school buildings
would shutter.
“I want to urge parents to have
a plan ready that they can put
into effect as early as Monday,”
the mayor said.The latest city data show that
the city has a 2.83 percent infec-
tion rate on a seven-day rolling
average.
The nonprofit-run pre-K and
3K programs in the city, as well as
the Learning Bridges child-care
program, would remain open
even if the infection rate passes
3 percent, de Blasio said.
“It is still below 3 percent, so
schools remain open. But that
number has gotten close to 3 per-
cent, and we are making prepara-
tions as a result in case that num-
ber does exceed 3 percent,” the
mayor said.
The city’s seven-day rolling av-
erage of new virus cases is at 916
— 366 more than the city’s warn-
ing threshold of 550 cases, while
the daily citywide positivity rate
is at 3.09 percent, the latest data
show.
Additionally, 121 new patients
were admitted to city hospitals
with suspected COVID-19, ac-
cording to the data.
“There’s still a chance these
numbers could turn,” de Blasio
said.
Following a twice-delayed startdate to the coronavirus-impacted
school year, in-person learning in
the city public schools officially
kicked off on Sept. 21.
The news of another looming
city school closure comes as par-
ents who initially chose remote-
only learning for their children
must decide whether to opt back
in to a blended-learning program
for the remainder of the school
year.
Those parents have until Sun-
day to decide whether they want
to enroll their child in blended
learning, a mix of remote instruc-
tion and in-person learning.
Meanwhile, de Blasio said that
setting 3 percent infection rate as
the threshold for closing public
schools was “something the city
decided” and “not part of any col-
lective-bargaining agreement”
with the teachers unions.
“This is a standard we set of
when we thought we would know
the difference between, ‘We
could keep things as safe as we
wanted to,’ versus something that
was getting more challenging,”
de Blasio said.
Internal school testing, accord-
ing to the city Department of Ed-
ucation, has shown infection
rates that have hovered around
just 0.15 percent.
Schools Chancellor Richard
Carranza had warned principals
late Thursday to prepare for an-
other shutdown of in-person
learning at all schools
“Out of an abundance of cau-
tion, and to keep our school com-
munities safe, I am asking all
schools to be prepared for a brief
time of fully remote learning, sys-
tem-wide,” Carranza wrote in an
e-mail obtained by The Post.
Additional reporting by Selim
Algar
[email protected]face shutdown
Classroom learning
may halt on Monday
as virus spikes: Blas
Michael Lanza from the
city’s Department of Health
said, “The city has set up more
than 200 testing sites across
our city to make it as fast and
accessible as possible to get
tested citywide, adding more
testing sites, mobile trucks,
and self-swab sites citywide.”
Testing lines were also out of
control elsewhere.
In Newark, NJ, dozens of
drivers lined up at a testingsite as workers in personal
protective gear took their in-
formation.
In Los Angeles, footage
taken after dark showed hun-
dreds of vehicles lining up for
testing at Dodger Stadium. So-
cial-media users in the city
urged people not to let the im-
age deter them from getting
tested.
Lorena Mongelli, Amanda
Woods and Jesse O’Neill