New York City shuts schools again as coronavirus surges

New York City shuts schools amid coronavirus surge

Credit: Angela Weiss/AFP

New York City is to shut down its entire public school system on Thursday amid fears that the second coronavirus wave has arrived.

The move, which comes within eight weeks of schools having been re-opened for in-person instruction, was triggered when the three per cent positive test threshold set by the city was exceeded.

It will be a blow for around 300,000 children who have been able to attend school in recent weeks,

New York, America’s largest education authority with 1.1 million pupils, is the latest to shut its schools as the spread of Covid-19 surges across the country. 

New York shuts schools again

Credit: Kathy Willens/AP

Boston stopped in-school tuition in late October. Philadelphia followed, as did Maryland. At the start of the week Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has come under attack for her tough curbs from the Trump administration, also cancelled classroom teaching.

Betsy DeVos, the US education secretary, has faced criticism for declining to provide guidance to schools across the country, insisting that it was not the role of the federal government to track infection rates.

Having been America’s coronavirus epicentre at the start of the crisis, New York started re-opening its schools at the end of September, making it the first big American city to do so.

However, the decision by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio attracted criticism. Teachers, uneasy about their safety, threatened to strike and the schools’ principals’ union passed a motion of no confidence.

Having committed to re-opening schools, Mr De Blaso is now under attack for not having done enough to put together a viable online learning system as a fallback.

Despite the spike in coronavirus infections in the city, virus transmission within schools has remained low, raising questions why the schools have been shut while restaurants and gyms have been allowed to remain open.