NYC Schools in Hot Spots to Shut as Fate of Businesses Unclear

(Bloomberg) -- Governor Andrew Cuomo cleared New York City’s move to close public and private schools in viral hot spots, while delaying approval of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to shut nonessential businesses in those areas.

Cuomo also threatened to shut religious institutions if members don’t follow rules about masks and social distancing. The governor said he will meet Tuesday with religious leaders in the communities, many of whose residents are Orthodox Jews, and where mask-wearing compliance is less than average and social gatherings are common.

“If I do not have agreement from the religious community as a starting point, then we will close down the religious institutions,” he said.

Schools will shut Tuesday in nine city ZIP codes where the rate of positive tests is greater than 3%, based on a 14-day average. Students at public institutions will learn remotely.

Businesses are less likely than schools and religious gatherings to spread the virus, and can stay open as the state devises a better targeting system than ZIP codes, Cuomo said. De Blasio, though, said he still intended to close businesses in the hot spots on Wednesday “unless we hear otherwise” from the state, as they work toward agreement.

“The state has a role to play, the city has a role to play,” de Blasio said. “Until there is a different plan, we are preparing to implement this plan.”

The mayor and governor, both Democrats, have a long history of rivalry and failure to coodinate their plans.

School Tests

Cuomo said schools and religious gatherings were his foremost concerns. New York has the nation’s largest public school system, and was the only major city to resume in-person learning in September after delays to address the teachers unions’ concerns about staffing, testing and safety.

On Sunday, de Blasio announced a plan to shut schools, indoor and outdoor dining and other nonessential businesses in the hot spots. Cuomo said he was unsure why de Blasio announced the plan rather than sending it to the state first so they could announce a joint course of action. After he and Cuomo spoke earlier Monday, the governor said businesses would stay open for the time being.

“A ZIP code is not the best basis to make these decisions,” Cuomo said. “We have to come up with a more intelligent geographic template and then close nonessential businesses in that template.”

Student Spreaders

Yossi Gestetner, co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, and a Rockland County resident, said Cuomo should tread warily.

“Earlier this year, a federal judge cautioned the governor about taking steps against religious gatherings while giving protests a pass, and I believe that order stands,” he said.

He said that the positivity rate is untrustworthy because it varies according to how many people seek tests, and that children would infect people at synagogues and businesses.

“It makes no sense to have tens of thousands of students running around stores and congregations, because some of their parents may have Covid-19,” he said. “If, as the governor says, congregations are super spreaders then he should not load them up with 100,000 out-of-school students. The more they are in school, the better.”

Recent Surge

New York, the early center of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, has seen its daily cases rise in recent days because of clusters in 20 ZIP codes statewide, including in Brooklyn and Queens and in Rockland and Orange counties. Those areas represented 21% of all positive cases on Saturday and 6.7% of the population.

The schools in the non-New York City hot spots will remain open for now, Cuomo said.

“We don’t have the same level of problem, but I’m going to be speaking to those community leaders also tomorrow, because it is roughly the same situation,” he said.

Not including the hot spots, New York’s positivity is 1.01%, the nation’s lowest, Cuomo said. Those 20 ZIP codes have an average positivity of 5.5%.

The governor said there had been “rampant violation” with religious gatherings of as many as 1,000 people at synagogues, churches and mosques.

“These have been going on for weeks,” he said. Cuomo said he is confident any closings would withstand legal challenges. “Politically, it’s hard to enforce. Legally, it’s sound.”

Enforcing Rules

The state is taking over enforcement in all the hot spots, and local governments must provide personnel, he said. The state did the same for bars and restaurants and saw increased compliance, he said.

Since the outbreak began in New York in March, the state has reported more than 464,000 cases and 25,000 fatalities. Of the more than 76,000 tests conducted statewide on Sunday, 933, or 1.22%, were positive, according to the most recent state data. There were 636 hospitalizations and eight virus-related fatalities.

At the worst of the outbreak, New York had more than 18,000 people hospitalized and a positivity rate of more than 50%. For 38 straight days through mid-September, it kept its statewide infection rate below 1%.

In New Jersey, where officials are seeing a viral surge in the largely Orthodox Jewish town of Lakewood, Governor Phil Murphy said health officials “reserve the right to take similar steps.” Closings would be limited to school districts, nonessential businesses and other places with isolated spikes, he said. Of 522 new cases reported Monday, the most came from Ocean County, and the majority of those 119 cases were in Lakewood.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.