Coronavirus update: Cuomo largely leaves school closures up to local officials

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo says local schools will make the decision whether to stay open or close for coronavirus protection, but the situation changes if a school has a child with a coronavirus case.

“The state rule is if a child in that school tests positive, the school must close for 24 hours, so we [can] clean the school, assess the situation,” Cuomo said.

The governor made the comment during a Friday afternoon briefing in which he also announced federal authorities will allow New York to increase its testing capacity for the coronavirus.

Cuomo also noted that some of the schools are wondering if they close, will the state penalize them for not following the 180-day rule. That rule stipulates that schools hold classes for 180 days to qualify for state funding.

“We’re going to waive the 180-day requirement,” Cuomo said.

A reporter later asked the governor about those who want the state to close schools during the coronavirus situation.

‘The closing of schools is a very difficult decision and a complicated decision.” Cuomo said.

The governor noted that one factor to consider is that a lot of children are relying on receiving breakfast and lunch at school.

“How do you get all those meals to all those kids when they’re not in school? What distribution mechanism do you have?” Cuomo asked in answering the question. “Then if the kids are home, what do the parents do?”

Increased testing capacity

Cuomo started the Friday briefing by announcing that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is allowing New York to authorize the state’s 28 public and private labs to begin manual, semi-automated, and automated testing for novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.

The governor has made increasing capacity a “priority,” and the approval will increase the state’s testing capacity “dramatically” — from 3,000 to date to about 6,000 per day in the next week.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com