New York City schools will CLOSE  

New York City is closing the nation’s largest public school system, sending over 1.1 million children home in hopes of curbing the spread of coronavirus.  

Gov Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday that schools will close early this week.  

‘This action is necessary to reduce density and mitigate the spread of #COVID19,’ Cuomo said. New York City has a total of 326 confirmed cases of the virus and five deaths. 

Shortly after Cuomo ordered New York City schools to close, Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference where he revealed that he will be ordering hospitals to cancel non-emergency surgeries beginning on Monday. 

De Blasio said it’s a ‘very troubling moment,’ adding: ‘I am just distraught having to take this action.’ 

The mayor also said there’s a possibility that bars and restaurants could faces closures as the city continues to respond to COVID-19. 

The decision to close the schools follows a growing number of school closures in communities and entire states around the country and mounting pressure in New York from residents, City Council members and others. 

The shutdown affects the city’s nearly 1,900 public schools. Many private schools already have closed. 

Schools in Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties will also close for two weeks beginning Monday.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had been reluctant to close the school system because of the consequences for students and families.

Just Saturday, the Democratic mayor said keeping schools running was critical. 

He worried that health care workers, first responders and other needed workers would have to stay home to care for children, and that hundreds of thousands of poor students could go hungry without their free or reduced-price school meals.

Multiple states had already announced they were closing schools. So have cities including Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC.

A shut down of the nation’s largest public school district seemed inevitable Sunday as de Blasio lost key support to keep schools open. 

Cuomo said in an afternoon conference call with reporters that he thought it was prudent to close schools as soon as a plan was in place to ensure that children of health care workers would be cared for.

The governor spoke shortly after county officials shut schools in Long Island and, across the state, in all of Erie County, including Buffalo. 

Still, Cuomo said closing the schools did not mean every school should be closed entirely if a plan could be created to keep some facilities open so teachers could provide child care and children who need food could be fed.

Cuomo said it shouldn’t take 24 hours to figure out such a plan.

As Cuomo spoke, George Gresham, president of the healthcare workers union SIEU 1199, called on de Blasio to close city schools, a step the mayor still seemed reluctant to take when he cited the union’s support for keeping the schools open as he spoke on WABC-TV earlier Sunday.

Earlier, the union had warned that hospitals, now bracing for a flood of virus patients, could face a manpower crisis if schools closed suddenly and health care workers had to stay home with their children.

Gresham, though, said in a statement that he was now confident that a plan could be reached to provide childcare for healthcare workers through school resource centers. 

He also called on the city and state to provide more funding for childcare for healthcare workers.

‘With these critical processes moving, I am now calling on Mayor de Blasio to close New York City’s public schools to help protect public health and prevent the spread of COVID-19,’ he said in a statement.

On Sunday morning, Nassau County County Executive Laura Curran announced that schools throughout the county adjacent to New York City would be closed for at least the next two weeks. 

Nassau County has more than 1.3 million residents.

Later in the day, the Suffolk County executive announced that schools there would be closed as well for the next two weeks.