Coronavirus: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announces schools to remain closed through academic year

State’s stay-at-home orders extend through 15 May

New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday that schools and colleges in the state would remain closed for the rest of the academic school year. Any decision about summer school would be decided later in May, he added.

Schools shut down in March as the coronavirus quickly spread through the state and inundated the healthcare system.

In response to the closures, teachers switched to virtual learning while schools found ways to still deliver meals and assist with childcare for essential workers during the pandemic.

Mr Cuomo recently extended its NY Pause, the state’s form of stay-at-home order, through 15 May but did not discuss what would happen to schools until his official announcement on Friday.

“We don’t think it’s possible to reopen schools in a way that would keep our children and students and educators safe,” Mr Cuomo said.

The governor and his office also asked schools to come up with a plan for how they can continue social distancing measures in the autumn. But no one could provide information on what exactly this would look like.

New York City Schools chancellor Richard Carranza told principals during a phone call this week that there was a “50-50” chance that facilities would open in September to welcome the new academic year, the New York Post reported.

“We are moving full steam ahead for a September opening of schools, but always planning for any eventuality,” Mr Carranza added in a Tweet shared on Wednesday. “Grateful every day for the hard work of all of our dedicated educators and support staff in serving our 1.1 million students.”

Decisions to keep schools closed through the academic school year comes as New York continues to flatten its Covid-19 curve.

In the last couple of weeks, the state’s reported a decline in hospitalisations and death rates due to the novel virus.

On Friday, the state reported 289 new deaths, which is the lowest number of deaths in a single day from Covid-19 in weeks. Despite the curve flattening, Mr Cuomo has implored residents to stick with social distancing measures to further curb the spread of the coronavirus.