NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday stressed that schools would remain open despite talks of a remote option being added and stressed that New York City is currently “winning” the fight against COVID-19.
“I don't want anyone to get this mixed up: Our schools are going to remain open,” the mayor said during a morning press conference.
Adams said he is remaining firm on his reopening plans, saying that increased testing has made schools even safer than they were before and there is no need for a remote option for those who are not sick.
“We consistently stated that the safest place for a child is in school,” Adams said.
However, attendance in city public schools has been below 80% for weeks.
Meanwhile, lawmakers, parents and students continue to urge the mayor to add a remote option for those who do not feel safe attending in-person classes.
When asked about the low attendance rate and remote learning, the mayor doubled down on his previously announced plans that schools remain fully in-person.
“Anything remote is to target those children who are infected,” Adams said. “We are digging down into the numbers to find out those children who are not in school, that are not positive, to see if there are some things happening at home that we need to give assistance to.”
The Education Department on Friday night updated its attendance policy for students who are sick with COVID, according to WABC-TV, noting that more online options were being added, including Zoom meetings with teachers.
The move sparked talks that a remote option would be added for students in the coming weeks, however, Schools Chancellor David Banks on Tuesday stated those options have always been in place to help students keep up with classes while isolating with COVID.
“There's been a long-standing policy, that preceded this administration, which allow for students who had tested positive and who are quarantined to receive a level of asynchronous kind of assignments,” he said.
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Banks noted that the announcement from the Department of Education on Friday night was to provide “a little bit more clarification on an option for some more students to take advantage of that policy.”
Similar to Adams, Banks stressed that New York City school officials are doing all they can to “bring more and more of our students back.”
Meanwhile, the mayor said that since students returned from holiday break, over 4.5 million at-home COVID tests have been distributed, allowing officials to identify over 25,000 cases in schools. All positive students and staff were told to isolate, which prevented “thousands more from getting COVID.”
Adams said vaccines and mask wearing are going to be key for keeping schools open but said the level of COVID-19 cases in New York City as a whole are declining.
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“The level of cases in New York City, they are declining. We know that there’s work to do and they still remain at a very high level, but we’re seeing them level off,” Adams said. “Let’s be clear on this: We are winning.”
According to the latest data from the New York City Health Department, under 20,000 new cases have been reported in the five boroughs each day for the last week, marking a significant drop from the nearly 60,000 cases that were reported in a single day at the beginning of the month.
Adams said that trend downwards can continue if every day New Yorkers continue to wear their masks and get vaccinated and boosted.
He added that he does not want people to live in fear of COVID-19 and he plans to visit a restaurant and a theater later this week to show New Yorkers that it is safe to go about their daily lives.
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