Cuomo says all New York schools can reopen

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has given all schools in the state the authorization to reopen.

"By our infection rates, all school districts can open, everywhere in the state," Cuomo said on Friday. "Every region is below the threshold that we established, which is just great news."

School districts in New York have to submit reopening plans to the Department of Health and the State Education Department, and these plans can be disapproved "if they're not responsible," Cuomo explained. To reopen in person, the region a school is in must have an average COVID-19 positivity rate of less than five percent, according to The New York Times. The Times notes this announcement doesn't mean all schools will ultimately reopen in person, but they have the clearance from the governor to do so.

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New York during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic was the hardest-hit state in the United States, in April reaching a peak of more than 11,000 new cases in a single day. Since then, its daily number of new cases and deaths has come down, and its infection rate this week fell below one percent. Cuomo says the state will continue to monitor the infection rate in the coming weeks before schools would reopen and could adjust the plan should there be a spike.

But at this time, the governor said, "you look at our infection rate, we are probably in the best situation in the country right now, as incredible as that is. So if anybody can open schools, we can open schools."