New York City parents should prepare for school closures due to a citywide spike in COVID-19 cases as early as Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday. For weeks, the number of new cases of the virus has been steadily increasing across the five boroughs pushing the city’s overall positivity rate closer to the de Blasio administration’s 3 percent threshold, triggering a citywide shutdown for in-person learning. Schools are still open today. De Blasio told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer the city’s daily COVID-19 positivity rate based on a seven-day average is now at 2.83 percent–a sharp jump from yesterday’s reported rate of 2.6 percent–and the daily positivity rate is 3.09 percent. The …
Teachers blast ‘weak’ safety measures after MS 88 staffer contracts COVID
Teachers at MS 88 in Greenwood Heights say the city has failed them after a staffer at the school tested positive for the coronavirus. In an open letter, teachers blasted the New York City Department of Education for what they say are weak testing requirements, which lead to an infected staffer entering the building — and the first known case since public school teachers returned to their classrooms this week. “The city has failed us, and in turn the public,” the letter reads. “What happened to us is a dress rehearsal for disaster for our school communities.” The MS 88 teachers say “recommended” testing of teachers does not go far enough, and more stringent testing is needed to keep infected teachers and…