News Desk: Schools in Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks will again be closed for in-person classes starting Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday.
The governor additionally announced that the state was rolling into the city to take the reins on enforcement — using city personnel — for coronavirus infractions in those areas, and put businesses and religious institutions on notice about large gatherings in houses of worship.
Cuomo dropped the bomb during a Midtown Manhattan press briefing one day after Mayor Bill de Blasio sought his blessing to shut down nine ZIP codes in the boroughs wholesale, closing not just schools but non-essential businesses and dining at restaurants.
The governor, however, said only schools would be closing for now.
“These clusters have to be attacked,” he said. “New York City has clusters.
“I would not send my child to a school in a hot-spot cluster,” Cuomo continued with respect to the school closures. “I am not going to recommend or allow any New York City family to send their child to a school that I wouldn’t send my child.”
Both public and private schools within nine ZIP codes experiencing outbreaks will be closed to in-person classes starting Tuesday. The governor did not give a reopening date.
Cuomo said that he made the decision following a “good, collaborative” conference call with de Blasio, city Comptroller Scott Stringer, City Council President Corey Johnson and Michael Mulgrew, president of the powerful United Federation of Teachers union.
Cuomo partially approved de Blasio’s plan less than a week after rapping the city for not doing enough to tamp down on the burgeoning outbreaks, a point he again stressed Monday without specifically naming the target of his remarks.
“Enforcement is kind. You know why? Because enforcement saves lives,” Cuomo said. “Any rule is only as good as the enforcement.
“Too many local governments are not doing enforcement,” he continued. “Warnings are not enforcement.”
Cuomo said that the state would take over enforcement for coronavirus enforcement in hotspots, after being disappointed in the city’s response.
- Courtesy: New York Post
