Students demonstrate during a rally to call on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to keep schools open
Credit: AP
Parents in New York have for weeks been fixated on the city’s coronavirus positivity rate, which could force schools to close down without notice.
If the city records a 3 per cent seven-day average it will trigger a shutdown of in-person learning, which some parents have argued is over-cautious given the school infection rate has remained stable at 0.15 per cent.
Bill de Blasio, New York’s mayor, set the threshold at the start of the new school term in September, and so far the city has remained just below it. He warned on Friday that schools could shut on Monday if the spread of the virus continued to accelerate, however, it recorded a modest drop in cases over the weekend.
On Sunday morning, parents learned of the news that schools would be open the following day from Mr de Blasio’s Twitter page.
“There is a second wave bearing down on us. We’re trying to beat it back,” Bill de Blasio, the city’s mayor, said during a City Hall press briefing. “We said we would make health and safety the priority, we said we would hold this standard. That was part of how we convinced everyone it would be safe to come into the schools.”
Students arrive for in-person classes outside Public School 188 in New York
Credit: AP
The latest data shows that the city has a 2.77 per cent infection rate on a seven-day rolling average.
New York, which has done a better job of containing the spread of Covid-19 that most other states, became one of the few big cities in the country to return children to school buildings.
The threshold is much more conservative than most other states. In Iowa, the positivity rate has been set at 15 per cent, while in the rest of New York state it has been set by Governor Andrew Cuomo at 9 per cent.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, greets students as they arrive for in-person classes outside Public School 188 in New York
Credit: AP
Mr Cuomo has been at odds with Mr de Blasio, saying that bars and restaurants should be targeted instead as they were mostly responsible for increases in cases.
The Democratic governor, who has intervened on closure matters in the past, opted not to in the case of New York City schools, reiterating that he had left local school decisions up to local school districts.
He argued that school-specific testing of students and staffers was introducing new data into the equation and should be taken into account.
“Add to your calculus a positivity rate in the school, because if the school is not spreading the virus, or if the school has a much lower positivity rate than the surrounding area, then the school is not part of the problem — and you could argue keeping the children in the school is part of the solution," he added.
Parents were inclined to agree.
“I know they want to keep kids and everyone safe, but at the end of the day, my child won’t learn anything at home and it’s making me think if maybe I want her to repeat the grade because I don’t know if she learned enough for the year,” Francesa Bonilla, mother of five-year-old Adriana, told the New York Post.
Calls to keep schools open were echoed by Corey Johnson, New York City Council Speaker, who released a statement in support of avoiding a citywide shutdown. “Our city is in a dangerous position right now with rising Covid rates,” it read. “But we owe it to students and families – and all New Yorkers who care about the future of this city – to try everything we can to keep schools open to provide in-person services while also prioritizing safety and equity.”
Debates about when and how to reopen schools come as America is experiencing a surge in cases, forcing some states to either delay their reopening plans or cancel in-person classes altogether.
The US reported more than 159,000 new cases on Saturday alone.
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