NYC Schools Can Remain Open After City Coronavirus Rate Hits 9%

NEW YORK CITY — Another mass closure of New York City’s public schools became less of possibility after Gov. Andrew Cuomo adjusted a coronavirus cutoff.

Schools in counties where the COVID-19 rate hit 9 percent can remain open so long as the district’s positivity is lower, Cuomo announced Monday.

“It is up to the local school district to make that decision,” he said. “My position has always been if this children are safer in the school than they are on the streets of the community then the children should be in school.”

The quiet adjustment came shortly after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city’s coronavirus positivity rate hit 9 percent for the first time in months.

Officials previously set a 9 percent threshold for automatically closing schools, but — as Cuomo pointed out — it’s triggered by the state’s measurement of coronavirus positivity. New York City officials use a different method that consistently yields a higher rate than the state’s.

The city until recently also instituted its own threshold — 3 percent — for closing schools. De Blasio walked it back after the city passed that point in November and schools closed en masse.