NYC schools to remain open as Covid-19 infection rate below 3 pc

New York

All schools in New York City will remain open on Monday, as the Covid-19 infection rate has edged up by thin margins and was yet to hit 3 per cent, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The seven-day average COVID-19 test positivity rate was 2.57 per cent, up from 2.47 per cent one day earlier, Xinhua news agency quoted Blasio as saying on Sunday.

"Thankfully, schools will remain open on Monday, but we have to keep fighting back with everything we've got," he added.

The NYC government has planned an overall closure of city schools, once the infection rate arrives at 3 per cent, which is deemed as the threshold for a second wave of the pandemic in the largest city of the US.

On Saturday, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters that the city should reconsider closing the entire public school system if the seven-day average infection rate for Covid-19 exceeds 3 per cent, and instead close them on a school-by-school basis.

As of Saturday afternoon, coronavirus deaths rose to 24,118 and confirmed cases to 280,599 in New York City.