New York City to close schools Monday to fight coronavirus

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City will close the nation's largest public school system on Monday, sending over 1.1 million children home in hopes of curbing the spread of coronavirus.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the decision to close schools through at least April 20 and possibly for the school year, following a growing number of school closures in communities and entire states around the country and mounting pressure in New York from residents, City Council members and others.

The mayor called it a “very troubling moment, a moment when I’m just distraught at having to take this action, but I became convinced over the course of today that there is no other choice.”

He also announced that there were now five deaths in New York and that he was ordering the end of elective surgeries.

The shutdown affects the city's nearly 1,900 public schools. Many private schools already have closed.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office had announced the city school closure moments before de Blasio, but initially said it would start as early as Tuesday.

De Blasio had been reluctant to close the school system because of the consequences for students and families. Just Saturday, the Democratic mayor said keeping schools running was critical. He worried that health care workers, first responders and other needed workers would have to stay home to care for children, and that hundreds of thousands of poor students could go hungry without their free or reduced-price school meals.

Multiple states had already announced they were closing schools. So have cities including Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

The shutdown had started to seem inevitable Sunday as de Blasio lost key support to keep schools open and Cuomo called for all downstate schools to be closed.

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