New York City officials made the decision to end the school year, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
New York is the US city hardest hit by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“Closing our public schools for the rest of the (school) year is not easy, but it is necessary to save lives,” de Blasio said at a press conference.
The death toll due to covid-19 continues to rise in the Big Apple, reaching 5,820, according to the latest count from Johns Hopkins University. But hospitalizations are falling, authorities say.
The mayor said he took the action after speaking with Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top scientific adviser on the virus on Friday night.
New York City public schools closed in the wake of the pandemic on March 16, but implemented online learning.
The new measure affects 1.1 million children in public schools in the largest US city, who were due to complete their courses at the end of June. They could only resume normal courses at the beginning of the following school year, in September.
Families that do not have the necessary equipment will receive computers and tablets on loan from the mayor’s office, authorities said. A total of 175,000 have already been sent to children in the city.
“Our teachers and parents are heroes and the city is going to help them with what they need,” said the mayor.
The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, had last Monday extended the closure of all schools in the state to April 29. The state already registers more than 170,000 cases of the virus and more than 7,800 deaths.
De Blasio also reported that 6,000 single adults living in homeless shelters – a third of the total – will be transferred to hotels “to ensure that people who need to be isolated are isolated.” (I)
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