Public schools in New York City, which reopened after much hesitation at the end of September, will close from this Thursday, after the Covid-19 positivity rate reached 3%.
“We have reached the threshold of 3% test positivity: unfortunately, this means that schools will be closed from Thursday 19 November as a precaution.Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted Wednesday.
The measure had been awaited for several days: the mayor had undertaken, when the establishments reopened at the end of September, in particular with a powerful teachers’ union, to close the establishments as soon as this threshold was reached.
But the closure is controversial: random tests carried out in schools have shown that the positivity rate there is much lower than the average rate in the city (0.19%).
The mayor did not immediately specify the duration of the shutdown, which comes a few days before the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26.
Some 1.1 million students attend New York public schools, the country’s largest school district.
But less than a third of them returned to face-to-face school in September, with many parents choosing the 100% online option for fear of the virus.
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