Governor Cuomo: Expect Public School COVID Closings
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says coronavirus infections and public school shut-downs are “inevitable” as kindergarten to 12th grade students return to class in some 700 school districts in the state.
The Democrat August 31 said he thinks what is being seen on college campuses with transmission of the virus and classes being moved from face-to-face instruction to online is going to be replicated when K through 12 schools reopen.
Cuomo told a news conference that school districts have plans and compliance measures, including testing a certain percent of students and staff but, he says, “If they are not followed, you will see students come back. You will see students get infected. You will see transmission rate go up and then you will see schools closed.”
The Governor says when you bring people together in a concentrated environment, “the viral transmission is going to go up.”
He says school districts and local governments will make the decisions about quarantine and remote learning.
Cuomo says colleges have one big difference when it comes to the chances of an outbreak of COVID-19 and that is the amount of socialization that happens on campuses.
Meanwhile, Binghamton University has informed students through the BLine notification email system that surveillance testing for undergraduate and graduate students, both on and off-campus will begin this week. It’s expected students will be notified a couple days in advance by email if they have been selected for testing. Surveillance testing was announced last month prior to the campus reopening.