Cuomo Reveals Coronavirus Threshold To Close New York Colleges

Bohemia NY

27 August, 2020

11:48 AM

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NEW YORK, NY — New York colleges will have to close for two weeks if their infection rates reach a certain threshold, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday. As colleges reopen nationwide, some have seen outbreaks. As such, Cuomo said the state set a new threshold: Colleges must shift to remote learning for at least two weeks if they have 100 cases among staff and students on campus, or the number of cases equals 5 percent of its population. Students will be able to stay on campus for remote learning. "We should anticipate clusters," Cuomo said. "When you have large congregations of people anticipate a cluster." Cuomo said the state expects to see clusters on college campuses and wants to be prepared for it. The state conducted about 83,000 tests and saw 0.9 percent come back positive for COVID-19. It was the 20th straight day under 1 percent. Four people died of the disease, 490 people were hospitalized, 126 were placed into intensive care treatment and 52 patients were intubated. "That's very good news," he said. Cuomo said a SWAT team of health experts will be sent to Western New York, where the infection rate reached 2 percent. "We're going to fly [the caution flag] a little higher today," Cuomo said. Eight more testing sites will be deployed to the region that can deliver results within an hour. "We're focusing on Western New York and we're going to continue to focus on it," he said.