Keep Kids Home From School, Queens Borough President Urges

QUEENS, NY — Acting Queens Borough President Sharon Lee is urging Queens families to keep children home from school this week, as officials ramp up the pressure on Mayor Bill de Blasio to shutter city schools in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19.

“I strongly urge all Queens families, in no uncertain terms, to keep all children home away from school this week," Lee said in a statement Sunday.

Lee issued the warning shortly after the city's Department of Education reported a confirmed case of the new coronavirus among the P.S. 306 Queens community and said the school would be cleaned and disinfected in time to reopen Monday.

The mayor has so far resisted calls from the likes of City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and the head of the city's teachers union to close New York City public school system, which, with more than a million students, is the largest in the country.

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Officials in at least seven states and the District of Columbia have already closed schools, though some experts argue school closures won't be effective in slowing COVID-19's spread unless they happen for the duration of the pandemic.

In a Friday morning interview on "The Brian Lehrer Show," de Blasio argued that closing public schools would cut off families' access to essential services like meals and child care and wouldn't necessarily slow the spread of the virus.

Instead, he said, schools would enact "social distancing" measures like having students eat lunches in their classrooms and holding gym classes outdoors. Officials said school buildings would also get deep cleanings twice a week, though some teachers say that isn't happening.

City officials said Sunday that all New Yorkers should assume they've been exposed to the new coronavirus, though some people may experience mild symptoms or even no symptoms at all.

The number of cases in New York City reached 269 as of noon Sunday and is expected to top 1,000 within days.

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