reopen nyc

Up Close: Reopening NYC schools and a DNC preview

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Monday, August 17, 2020

Bill Ritter is joined by teachers union president Michaele Mulgrew and ABC News' Dr. Jen Ashton to discuss the health and safety concerns about reopening NYC schools.

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- In this episode of Up Close, how does New York City safely reopen schools?

The new school year is planned to start on September 10.

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To ease parents' minds, Mayor de Blasio has been touting all the safety and precautionary measures that New York City Schools are taking.

A survey released this past week showed 74% of the 1.1 million public school students in New York City plan to return to on-campus learning, and 85% of teachers will be present.

Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers, the trade union of teachers in New York City, says that the schools are not prepared to open safely, and that remote learning is the way to go.

This past week, it was reported that the United States now has more than five million confirmed cases of coronavirus which means that there is more than 50 million total estimated by the CDC because so many of the cases were not confirmed.

As the schools across the country, decide what to do next month in September, and word that more vaccines are in the pipeline, ABC Medical News Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton weighs in on where we currently are, and where we are possibly headed.

Finally, the Democratic Convention virtual event starts Monday in Milwaukee.

ABC Political Director, Rick Klein, and Political Consultant Hank Sheinkopf weigh in on Joe Biden's choice of Kamala Harris as his running mate, and how this affects his campaign for President.

Hundreds of nursing homes still aren't allowing visitation amid coronavirus pandemic

Dan Krauth reports nearly five months after the coronavirus pandemic started, thousands of families in New York still haven't been able to visit their loved homes in nursing homes