Mayor Again Warns of School Closings

By KENDRA MARTINEZ

Mayor de Blasio on Thursday repeated his warning of closing down schools again as the percentage of coronavirus positive cases on a seven-day average stood at 2.6% citywide, edging toward the threshold he set of a 3 percent infection rate for such an action.

At his daily press briefing the mayor also introduced a plan, called “The Take Care Program” to control the spread of COVID-19, particularly in households, by distributing a kit with at-home tests, PPE, a thermometer, a pulse oximeter, and hand sanitizer for individuals who have tested positive.

The announcement came after the Governor Cuomo required gyms, restaurants, and bars to close from 10 p.m to 5 p.m. starting November 13. because of the rapid increase of infection rates. Restaurants and bars could be open later only for take-out and delivery.

“The Take Care program is here to help you do what you need to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to the people you care about or the people that you work with,” said Dr. Amanda Johnson of the Health and Hospitals’ Test and Trace Corps. She said that in households where one person tests positive, 53% of those go on to have a second person in that same household test positive. The transmission can occur as early as five days from exposure. It provides a personal activation code for a contact tracing account, and a COVID-19 swab test that can be used and sent out as instructed by a contact tracer.

De Blasio’s plan includes a hotel program that would allow people who have tested positive to have a place to quarantine alone.

“You can stop the disease from being transmitted by doing the right thing or you can inadvertently transmit the disease by doing the wrong thing. Every single New Yorker matters,” said de Blasio.

The newly reported cases on a seven-day average are up to 550, hitting 870 cases on Thursday.

The mayor did not say when the kit program would start.