NEW YORK CITY — New York City schools will temporarily close to in-person learning after the city's percentage of positive COVID-19 tests exceeded 3% over a seven-day average, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, this means public school buildings will be closed as of tomorrow, Thursday Nov. 19, out an abundance of caution,"de Blasio tweeted. "We must fight back the second wave of COVID-19."
The mayor announced the news Wednesday afternoon more than four hours after he was meant to address the latest coronavirus news at a press conference.
De Blasio had previously set a school-shutdown threshold of a 3% positivity rate over a seven-day period.
New York City has reached the 3% testing positivity 7-day average threshold. Unfortunately, this means public school buildings will be closed as of tomorrow, Thursday Nov. 19, out an abundance of caution.
We must fight back the second wave of COVID-19.— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 18, 2020
The city's seven-day positivity rate Tuesday was 2.74% and 2.77% on Monday.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
This story was originally published by Mark Sundstrom and Kristine Garcia on WPIX in New York City.