NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Confirms NYC Schools Will Close If Infection Rate Hits 3%: ‘The Question Then Will Be How Quickly Can We Reopen Them’

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pulled no punches when asked if New York City public schools will close down again if the local infection rate hits three percent, answering with a succinct: “Yep.”

During an interview with MSNBC’s Katy Tur on Friday, Cuomo confirmed what New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had already said the day before, which was based upon an joint agreement in September between the city and the teacher’s union. At that point, the city’s infection rate was merely a fraction of one percent. But on Friday, with the country in the throes of massive spike in cases and hospitalizations, the city’s new daily Covid positivity rate had surpassed 2.8 percent and was rising.

Tur bluntly pushed the governor if that deal would still hold if the rate hit the closing threshold over the weekend.

“Are schools going to close on Monday if we top three percent?” she asked.

“Yep,” Cuomo said, matter-of-factly. “Because the way it works in New York with schools, we have 700 local school districts, and we set parameters and we let local governments then set parameters for their particular district with their parents and with their teachers. New York City set three percent as the agreement.”

Cuomo went on to point out that the three percent mark is relatively low, as nearly 80 percent of states currently average a higher infection rate.

“The question then will be how quickly can we reopen them,” Cuomo explained. “We’ve learned a lot over the past few months. We now do a tremendous am of testing in the schools. And what we’ve learned, Katy, is we’re not seeing spread in the schools. You see a very low percentage of positivity in the schools. So even though you have a jurisdiction that may be at three percent, that doesn’t mean that the schools are what is spreading it and we have to take that into consideration and I think that will facilitate a reopening.”

Why close the schools then, Tur asked, following up.

“Remember where we were. Parents were nervous and everybody was nervous,” Cuomo said. “The local school districts consulted their parents, the teachers at the time, the teachers union at the time and they came up with a an agreement about the conditions that would open the schools and what would close the schools. The agreement in New York City was just that. If the infection rate in new York City went above three percent, the schools close. That is the agreement.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.