NY Coronavirus: No Decision Yet On Reopening Schools, Cuomo Says

NEW YORK, NY — Despite an announcement by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Saturday that the city's public schools will stay closed through the rest of the school year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said no decision has been made — and won't be in the next few days because the future remains uncertain.

"I understand the mayor's position. The mayor has an opinion. But when we made the decision to close schools we made it for the entire metropolitan region," Cuomo said. "Any decision to reopen will also be a coordinated decision."

Cuomo said the opinions of not just de Blasio, but also Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, as well as upstate officials, will be coordinated before a decision is made.

At the minimum, Cuomo said a decision will be made for the metropolitan area, including New York City and Nassau and Suffolk Counties; hopefully, he said, the decision would be made statewide to include the upstate region — and ideally, would be coordinated with decisions made in Connecticut and New Jersey.

When asked if de Blasio's decision was "invalid," Cuomo said, "It's it's opinion," but added that the mayor cannot close or open schools. "It is my legal authority," to do so, he said.

As of Saturday, he said, "There has been no decision."

Any decision will have to be coordinated with one to open businesses, he said, adding that the decision likely won't be made in the next few days. "I can't tell you what May is going to look like. I can't tell you what June is going to look like," he said.

Deaths continue to rise as curve continues to flatten

Cuomo said Saturday that while the curve continues to flatten, with rates of hospitalization and ICU "on the downward slope," the death rate continued to climb over the past 24 hours, with 783 new deaths reported statewide.

While Cuomo said he believes communities upstate and on Long Island have "stabilized," with hot spots "attacked aggressively," the death rate is grim.

"These are just incredible numbers depicting incredible loss and pain," he said.

Statewide, deaths total 8,627, up from 7,844.

He added that New Yorkers must "stay the course" and continue adhering to social distancing protocols.

"There are no political conspiracies here"

Cuomo addressed politics. "The best thing we have done to date is to keep politics out of the discussion," he said. "Even though it is a hyper-partisan time, and this is one of the ugliest political periods I can recall, we have kept politics out of this crisis."

Of President Trump, he said: "We have had our political differences in the past, no doubt, but he has been responsive to New York's needs."

When asked if he would, as some have suggested, throw his hat into the political ring and presidential race, Cuomo said, "I am not running for anything. I am the governor of New York." Speculation by some hoping he might run, he said, is "flattering but irrelevant. I have no political agenda, period. I am not running for President. I am not running for Vice President. I am not going to Washington. I'm staying right here."

Of the many theories abounding on when business will reopen, he added, "There are no political conspiracies here." Cuomo pointed to all the models that have projected numbers of deaths. All the planning that has been done has been based on the models, which have varied dramatically in infection rates and deaths projected. "There is no political conspiracy. These are unchartered waters for all of us. Let's focus on facts and data and make our decisions that way," Cuomo said.

Looking ahead at recovery, Cuomo said the federal stimulus bill is key and that he believe the federal government should repeal the SALT, or state and local tax deduction, act, which he called "gratuitous, offensive, and illegal, in my opinion" and which he said targeted New York.

Reopening businesses, Cuomo said, is a public health and economic question. "I am unwilling to divorce the two," he said, adding that it is important to look to areas that reopened too soon and are now seeing a growing infection rate, or a second wave. "We want to make sure we know this time that we've learned from the others' experiences," he said.