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Coronavirus Updates: NYC Schools Reopening Document Just An "Outline," Not A Plan, Cuomo Advisor Says

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Jen Chung

and

Sydney Pereira

Published Aug 2, 2020

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Jacob H. Schiff school in Manhattan on April 20th.

 

Vanessa Carvalho/Shutterstock

By

Jen Chung

and

Sydney Pereira

Published Aug 2, 2020

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This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Sunday, August 2nd, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.

New York City is in Phase 4 of reopening now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, and professional sports (without fans). A look at preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.

Here's the latest:

2:10 p.m.: A top advisor to Governor Andrew Cuomo criticized the NYC schools reopening plan as an "outline," rather than a fully-fleshed out plan, after an initial review of the document submitted late Friday.

The New York City Department of Education submitted a 32-page plan after 5 p.m. on Friday, so state officials have not yet had an opportunity to closely read those plans from NYC as well as other major school districts. But compared to other school districts, it's not nearly as lengthy, Governor Andrew Cuomo's advisor Jim Malatras said during a press call on Sunday.

"There hasn't been a chance to really dive in deeply on those plans, but to just put it in perspective, what was submitted looks like an outline, not a plan. It's about 30 pages," said Malatras, also the SUNY Empire State College president. "And just to put it in context New York City schools district has 1,866 schools and 1.1 million students, while other plans that have been submitted are much more detailed from at least first glance."

Yonkers' school district, with 39 schools and 27,000 students, submitted an 80-page plan. In Albany, officials sent a 60- to 70-page reopening plan, which covers 18 schools and 10,000 students.

Cuomo added, "It's about the parents being comfortable."

"Just because the school district says we're open, does not mean students are going to go," Cuomo said. "They're very iffy on this proposition, and it is going to depend on that school district's plan."

He said major questions remain, like how the schools will conduct testing, how many tests would be a representative sample, and the issue of turnaround time for coronavirus tests amid infection spikes across the country and longer wait times for test results.

"These national labs are getting slower and slower," Cuomo said.

On Saturday, the governor said he was "disappointed" the city filed its plan so late. Cuomo's decision on which regions will reopen their schools will be announced by August 7th.

"Our plan was submitted on time, and is the latest piece of information we’ve released to families and staff over the last several weeks," Department of Education spokesperson Miranda Barbot said in an email. "It answers complex questions for the nation’s largest school district, and applies to all of our schools with point by point details and specifics."

Barbot added education department officials "won't do anything that isn't in the best interest of our students and staff," and emphasized the city has a stricter infection rate threshold than New York State, 3 percent rather than 5 percent. Barbot added the state did not specify a time to submit the document on Friday, and the city filed it at 5:05 p.m.

Teachers with the group Movement of Rank and File Educators are leading a march Monday evening in Lower Manhattan to protest the plan to partially reopen schools in person.

On Saturday in New York, 0.9 percent of COVID-19 tests were positive on Saturday, or 531 out of 58,961 tests total.

Three people died of COVID-19 Saturday; none were reported in NYC, though preliminary numbers often change.

Hospitalizations dropped by 25 to 556 total statewide, the lowest since March 17th. Intensive care patients dropped to 143, down by four.

The official coronavirus death toll reached 25,170 across the state.

State Issues 36 More Social Distancing Violations In Downstate NY, Mostly In Queens And Manhattan

The state police and liquor authority task force issued another round of social distancing violations on 36 establishments after visiting 1,070 places in New York City and Long Island on Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday.

The additional violations are a part of an aggressive crackdown on compliance issues in NYC and Long Island, where large groups continue to gather outside bars and restaurants in violation of pandemic social distancing guidelines.

Seven establishments had liquor licenses suspended Saturday.

The task force has inspected more than 13,500 bars and restaurants since it was formed.

Most violations on Saturday were issued in Queens and Manhattan.

Here's a county breakdown:

An MTA employee, part of the "Mask Force," distributes free masks on July 23, 2020

Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit

Subways Are Safer Than Indoor Dining, Experts Say

The MTA is in a deep financial crisis, with ridership revenue down as the agency has been forced to spend more to constantly clean trains and buses as New York City slowly reopens. The MTA has requested $3.9 billion in federal funds to make it through the rest of the year, but it also desperately needs riders to come back to mass transit. On the latter, the NY Times offers a glimmer of hope.

According to the Times, "In countries where the pandemic has ebbed, ridership has rebounded in far greater numbers than in New York City — yet there have been no notable superspreader events linked to mass transit, according to a survey of transportation agencies conducted by The New York Times. Those findings could be evidence that subways, commuter railways and buses may not be a significant source of transmission, as long as riders wear masks and train cars or buses never become as intensely crowded as they did in pre-pandemic rush hours."

Public health authorities in Paris, Austria, and Tokyo have been unable to connect COVID clusters to mass transit.

And as New York City continues to prohibit indoor dining, the NY Times reports, "Among the range of urban activities, the experts say, riding the subway is probably riskier than walking outdoors but safer than indoor dining," and offers this factoid: "In New York’s subway trains, transit officials say, the filtered air that circulates through a car is replaced with fresh air at least 18 times an hour. That is a much higher than the recommended air-exchange rates in restaurants, where recycled air is replaced eight to 12 times per hour, or in offices, where it is replaced six to eight times an hour."

Of course, safety depends on a number of factors: Dr. Scott Weisenberg, an Infectious Disease specialist at NYU Langone, told Gothamist in May, "If you're in an indoor location, like a subway, that's higher risk than an outdoor location. And if you're on a subway that's going from the Bronx to Brooklyn, and you're going to be on that for an hour, that's a higher risk than, say, if I'm going two stops."

He added, "The people around you wearing a mask is what reduces your risk on a subway. So if you have a bunch of people who are not wearing masks and they're within close contact with you, within six feet, and you're around them for prolonged period of time, not just 30 seconds, that's putting you at risk. Even if you're wearing a mask, those other people are putting you at risk. So the way that everybody reduces the risk is that everybody wears a mask at all times when they're around other people."

The MTA launched a "Mask Force" in July to distribute 1 million masks to riders across the system.

Dr. Don Milton, an environmental health researcher and aerosol transmission expert at the University of Maryland, pointed out to the Times that other measures will be needed to safely operate mass transit during a pandemic, like non-traditional work start times, to avoid rush hour crunches: "Each of these things layers one on top of the other to make things safer."

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COVID-19

covid-19 updates

subway

coronavirus

Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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Sydney Pereira

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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