New York City’s public schools will remain closed for the duration of the academic year to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Saturday.
“I reminded everyone, the worst mistake we could make is to take our foot off the gas and end up in a situation where this disease had a resurgence and threatened us even more,” the mayor said.
Recently, de Blasio and School Chancellor Richard Carranza spoke with Dr. Anthony Fauci about possibly reopening schools before the end of the academic year, but the mayor said, “Increasingly we were thinking it did not make sense.”
“Having to tell you that we cannot bring our schools back for the remainder of this school year is painful, but I can also tell you it’s the right thing to do. It clearly will help us save lives,” he stated.
Saturday, the city’s Department of Education tweeted that students will continue to learn remotely for the rest of the school year:
De Blasio also outlined a plan to make sure the city’s 1.1 million students have access to iPads during the shutdown, and hotlines were expanded for parents to contact educators when they need support.
The mayor said officials were working on creating more online programming and helping the city’s 75,000 seniors stay on track for graduation.
Thursday, the number of hospitalizations fell dramatically since the start of New York’s coronavirus crisis, according to Breitbart News.
“We had 200 net increase in hospitalizations, which you can see is the lowest number we’ve had since this nightmare started actually,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said during a press briefing.
He also praised New Yorkers for following social distancing guidelines, which he claimed were responsible for reducing the number of hospitalizations.
“Our efforts are working. They’re working better than anyone projected they would work; that’s because people are complying with them,” he commented.
However, the governor also warned residents not to take the situation lightly and to continue practicing the guidelines to flatten the curve.
“Don’t underestimate this virus. I think that’s a mistake that we made from day one,” he noted.
Saturday, de Blasio said the coming school year “is going to have to be the greatest academic year in New York City public schools I’ve ever had because we’re going to be playing a lot of catch up.”
“We’re going to be looking for every conceivable way to make it the richest, most powerful year we’ve ever had to really help our kids move forward,” he concluded.
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