New York schools will remain open on Monday. That could change soon.

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The average 7-day test positivity rate, a measure of the number of Covid-19 tests that come back positive, was 2.57% Sunday morning, according to Bill Neidhardt, a spokesperson for de Blasio.

The test results offered at least one more day’s reprieve for the only major school system to reopen in-person classes since the spring.

In negotiations with the teachers’ union, Mayor Bill de Blasio said schools would revert to all distance education if the 7-day test’s positivity rate exceeded 3%. Over the past week, New York City approached that dreaded 3% figure, and on Friday the one-day positivity rate hit 3.09%.

“Schools currently remain open, based on the 7-day test positivity rate. Again, we expect the daily test positivity to fill up and increase as new test results are entered into the system, but don’t expect that increase to push today’s 7-day average to 3%, ”Neidhardt said in an email.

The mayor expressed his gratitude in a tweet and warned against complacency.

“Fortunately, the schools will remain open on Monday, but we have to keep fighting with everything we have,” he said.

No evidence of spread at school

Schools reopened in September with students and teachers wearing masks, staggered hours to have fewer students in class each day, and quantities of hand sanitizer.

So far at least, there is little evidence that schools in New York City have contributed to the spread of the virus. A testing program that aimed to randomly test 10-20% of the student and staff populations of each school once a month found only 28 cases of coronavirus out of 16,348 tests, a minuscule positivity rate of 0, 17%, de Blasio said last month.
The preliminary success of the reopening of New York City schools and what it may mean for other districts

Still, officials said Friday that the school system’s 1.1 million students and 75,000 teachers should prepare for a brief period of distance learning “out of caution.”

“We have already faced these challenges and are ready to face any situation that arises,” New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza wrote in a letter to principals on Friday. “New Yorkers have proven that they are ready and willing to do the collective work to fight this virus.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday recognized Blasio’s right to close schools at the 3% positivity rate, but said he was open to a new statewide policy to keep wards open classes. The state set a 7-day average positivity rate over the summer that exceeded 9% as a school closure threshold.

As cases increased, the state ordered gyms and businesses serving alcohol to close at 10 p.m. Indoor and outdoor gatherings at private homes in New York State were also limited to 10 people with the aim of curbing the spread of the virus.

CNN’s Annie Grayer, Ray Sanchez, Taylor Romine and Jonathan Kubiak contributed to this report.

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