New York City schools will CLOSE  

New York City schools will be closing this week after Mayor Bill de Blasio faced immense pressure to shut them down as the coronavirus continues to spread through the Big Apple.

The announcement was made on Sunday by Melissa DeRosa, the secretary to Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a tweet. 

‘Gov Cuomo announced Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk & NYC schools will close w/ childcare for essential workers & food programs,’ DeRosa wrote. 

‘NYC must have a plan for childcare &food in place within the next 24 hours Schools will close in NYC early this week; Nassau/SUFFOLK/Westchester tomorrow.’

Just minutes after DeRosa made the announcement on Twitter, Cuomo called for all downstate schools to be closed in a tweet of his own.

‘This action is necessary to reduce density and mitigate the spread of #COVID19,’ Cuomo said. 

A shut down of the nation’s largest public school district seemed inevitable Sunday as de Blasio lost key support to keep schools open. 

The Democratic governor said in an afternoon conference call with reporters that he thought it prudent to do so as soon as a plan was in place to ensure that children of health care workers would be cared for.

Cuomo spoke shortly after county officials shut schools in Long Island and, across the state, in all of Erie County, including Buffalo.

Still, Cuomo said closing the schools did not mean every school should be closed entirely if a plan could be created to keep some facilities open so teachers could provide child care and children who need food could be fed.

Cuomo said it shouldn’t take 24 hours to figure out such a plan.

As Cuomo spoke, George Gresham, president of the healthcare workers union SIEU 1199, called on de Blasio to close city schools, a step the mayor still seemed reluctant to take when he cited the union’s support for keeping the schools open as he spoke on WABC-TV earlier Sunday.

Earlier, the union had warned that hospitals, now bracing for a flood of virus patients, could face a manpower crisis if schools closed suddenly and health care workers had to stay home with their children.

Gresham, though, said in a statement that he was now confident that a plan could be reached to provide childcare for healthcare workers through school resource centers. 

He also called on the city and state to provide more funding for childcare for healthcare workers.

‘With these critical processes moving, I am now calling on Mayor de Blasio to close New York City’s public schools to help protect public health and prevent the spread of COVID-19,’ he said in a statement.

On Sunday morning, Nassau County County Executive Laura Curran announced that schools throughout the county adjacent to New York City would be closed for at least the next two weeks. 

Nassau County has more than 1.3 million residents.

Later in the day, the Suffolk County executive announced that schools there would be closed as well for the next two weeks.