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Students in New York are unlikely to return to the classroom this school year due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. The city is scrambling to figure out how to get students back into the classroom, but the current situation is looking grim.
The city is working to get laptops and internet to students who are in need, while also focusing on senior students whose graduations could be in jeopardy if courses cannot continue at the appropriate rate.
“Right now, even though April 20 is our goal to reopen, I can’t see it,” de Blasio told reporters on Monday, March 23, via the New York Post. “We’re going to make that judgment as we get closer but at the trajectory we’re on now, I can’t see it.
“I do unfortunately believe the likelihood we’re at right now is that we lose the whole school year which is really really, deeply unfortunate.”
New York public schools have been closed since March 15.
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The coronavirus mainly comes from animals and a majority of those who were infected early either worked at or frequently visited the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, according to The Guardian. The virus is similar to Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers).
The Wuhan coronavirus is transmitted from person to person through “droplet transmission.” That means an infected person can pass the virus by sneezing or coughing on another person as well as by direct contact.
While a majority of the cases have been detected in China, it has now reached many countries around the world including the United States. It has also been confirmed in Italy, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and many other eastern countries.
