New York prepares to reopen elementary schools this week

New York, Dec 6 (EFE) .- The city of New York is preparing to reopen some of its schools this week and receive some 190,000 early-age students in the classrooms, amid protests by parents who this Sunday asked to the authorities a date of return for the intermediate and superiors.
After Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last month the closure of public schools due to the rebound in coronavirus cases, this Monday elementary school students (from kindergarten to fifth grade) will be able to return to face-to-face classes, and on Thursday students in special education schools.
This Sunday, teachers and parents from middle and high schools grouped together on the “Keep NYC Schools Open” platform in front of the Mayor’s Office asked for the immediate return to classrooms for 145,000 students from fifth to twelfth grade who were receiving face-to-face education and still they have no return date.
Among the group’s demands, some parents said that their jobs are essential, so they cannot supervise their children at home, and they considered remote education to be elitist; while a veteran math teacher said that students have a hard time learning at a distance and are “suffering a lot.”
The city has focused on distributing electronic devices for students to access remote classes, but some 60,000 need tablets or laptops, according to the Department of Education.
The Big Apple has registered 2,264 new cases of covid-19 and 165 related hospitalizations in the last 24 hours, while the rate of positivity -positive in the total of tests carried out- prorated in the last week is at 5.12%, according to Mayor De Blasio.
The arrival of this indicator at the 3% limit was what triggered the closure of schools last month, and now that it will no longer be taken into account, parents must authorize their children to take tests in schools, since 20% of the students and workers will be tested each week.
The state of New York, which is among those with the most controlled situation in the country but is also registering outbreaks, had a positivity rate of 4.71% this Saturday, with about 9,700 infections, according to the authorities reported today.
“We are closely monitoring the capacity of hospitals and have implemented measures to ensure that hospitals have what they need. The light at the end of the tunnel is the vaccine and it is coming, but until then we must be disciplined,” said in a note the Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo, in an article published this Saturday by the Newsday newspaper, asked to take the example of the schools because they follow prevention measures and their infection rates are lower than in the surrounding community.

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