NEW YORK — School’s out for summer — and maybe even longer.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday ordered all schools in New York to remain closed for the rest of the academic year and warned that conventional classroom learning may not even be back in time for the fall semester, as the coronavirus crisis continues to wreak havoc on society.
Speaking during his daily COVID-19 briefing in Albany, Cuomo said his team had determined there’s simply no way to safely reopen before the school year ends June 26.
“How do you operate a school that’s socially distanced with masks, without gatherings?” Cuomo said. “We don’t think it’s possible to do that in a way that would keep our children and students and educators safe, so we’re going to have the schools remain closed.”
Schools have been shuttered since the coronavirus pandemic struck New York with deadly force in mid-March.
Cuomo’s edict will impact 4.2 million K-12, college and university students.
The Democratic governor said universities, colleges and some K-12 schools will continue remote learning programs through the spring semester.
School officials have already inquired about the possibility of holding summer classes, Cuomo said.
He didn’t sound optimistic about the prospect, but promised to make a decision by the end of the month.
Looking ahead, Cuomo said schools should start “preparing plans” for the fall semester with COVID-19 in mind. He suggested it will be a daunting task.
“This bizarre setup here, right? Look at this room. How do you run a school like this?” Cuomo said, gesturing toward face mask-clad reporters in the room sitting at least six feet apart.
“How many more rooms would you need to do this or how many more buses to socially distance on a bus? How about a cafeteria? How about a dorm room? There is a whole set of questions. They should start working on those plans now.”
After Mayor Bill de Blasio announced April 11 that New York City schools would stay shut for the rest of the academic year, Cuomo stepped in and overruled the directive, slamming it as premature.
“He wants to close them until June, and we may do that, but we’re going to do it in a coordinated sense with the other localities,” Cuomo said at the time.
Cuomo’s change of heart came as another 289 New Yorkers died overnight from the virus, bringing the state’s total death toll to 18,321. That’s down from 306 deaths in the 24-hour period that ended Thursday morning.
Despite the horrific death count, net daily hospitalizations and intubations continue to trend downward, Cuomo said.
The number of new confirmed cases per day remains stagnant around 1,000, Cuomo said. An overwhelming majority of new cases are being reported in the five boroughs.
Cuomo said he’s in no rush to lift his stay-at-home order — especially not for the Big Apple — and noted that the state’s coronavirus curve is consistently receding thanks to social distancing.
“That shift in the trajectory reduced by about 100,000 the number of New Yorkers who would have been hospitalized … A portion of those 100,000 would have passed away,” Cuomo said. “So all this inconvenience, all this turmoil, for what? To keep 100,000 people out of hospitals, that’s for what.”
———
©2020 New York Daily News
Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.