New York City reopened its public elementary schools on Monday, but a slow recovery in the coronavirus epidemic could push authorities to close dining rooms in the coming days.
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Some 850 schools reopened Monday “to joy and hope,” said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The first American metropolis – the most affected by the first wave of the epidemic in the spring, with some 24,000 deaths from the pandemic – had closed all public schools on November 19, after having crossed the 3% mark in the rate of positivity on tests.
But she has since revised this criterion and, in view of the very low infection rate in the schools, decided not only to reopen them for the youngest ones, but also to prepare to welcome the children again every day, and no longer alternating as was the case since the reopening of schools in October.
However, public colleges and high schools remain closed and only offer online education for now – and at least until January.
This reopening comes even as the positivity rate is increasing in the first American metropolis, and is now around 5%.
Although this increase remains more under control than in the rest of the United States – New York State, along with Vermont, Maine and Hawaii, has one of the lowest positivity rates in the country – it worries the authorities, because it is accompanied by an increase in hospitalization rates.
If these rates do not stabilize within five days, New York restaurants, which could accommodate indoor customers by respecting a maximum of 25% capacity, will have to close their rooms, warned Governor Andrew Cuomo.
In other parts of New York State, where restaurants have a 50% capacity limit, it would be limited to 25%.
While calling on New Yorkers to do everything to reverse the trend, Cuomo stressed that he expects the hospitalization rate to rise further, in the wake of the Thanksgiving family reunion, and ahead of those. of Hanukkah and Christmas.
According to the highly respected immunologist Anthony Fauci, guest at Mr. Cuomo’s press briefing, this “overimposition” of holiday periods could lead to a peak in the epidemic in mid-January.
“If the public health measures are not heeded,” he said, “mid-January could really be a dark time”.
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