Reopen NY: New York schools to receive 'COVID report cards,' Gov. Cuomo says

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

NY schools will receive 'COVID report cards'

Gov. Cuomo annoucned all New York state public schools must report testing data on a daily basis, to be posted in an online daily "report card."

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday all New York state schools must report testing data on a daily basis, which will be posted in an online daily "report card."

"Every school district has to report every day to the state department of health as to how many tests were taken, what type of tests, what was the result," Cuomo said.

New York State's Department of Health will be retrieving the information from three different sources: the schools, local health departments and the labs doing the testing.

The state's website enables you to find a school district.

"It will tell you everything you need to know about where that school district is with COVID, how many tests they've taken, how many they took yesterday, what the results were, who's doing the tests, what's the turnaround on the tests," Cuomo said.

The data that will be made available includes:

- Positive cases by date of students and staff by school and school district

- Whether school/district (and student and staff) are remote, in-person or hybrid

- Number of students and staff on-site

- Percentage of on-site students and staff who test positive

- Number of tests administered by the school, test type, lab used and lag time

New York State's Department of Health will also be issuing regulations to require colleges to notify the state when they have 100 COVID-19 cases and could have to transition to remote learning.

"100 cases can happen very easily," Cuomo said. "That department of health regulation will go out today. It will be unequivocal. As soon as the college has notification from any source, they have to report it."

This as colleges around the country are seeing outbreaks, with 108 colleges reporting more than 100 cases each.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said 108 colleges have reported more than 100 cases each around the country.

In New York, SUNY Oneonta, Cornell University, University at Buffalo, Hofstra University, SUNY Oswego, Colgate University, SUNY Fredonia have all seen outbreaks.

"That's the entire state," Cuomo said. "It goes from Long Island, all the way upstate. This is going to be a problem. I am telling you, one of the lessons we learned is just anticipate what is happening and be ready for it."

"Frankly, NYU security didn't do anything about it," he said. "The local police didn't do anything about it. You have NYU students who come from other countries. You have a large gathering, many people without masks, going on for hours. What do you think is going to happen? We say we are New York tough. That is not tough by the NYU administrators, who as soon as they heard about it should have said stop it, send NYU security, break it down. It's not tough by the NYC enforcement. They saw the large gathering, violation of social distancing. It wasn't smart. It's totally contrary to everything you know. We are not acting in a spirit of unity, it's not disciplined, and it is not loving. It violates everything."

Hofstra University released a statement describing Cuomo's statements as misleading, citing a total of 34 positive cases out of a total on-campus population of 9,200 since August 28.

"In every instance, appropriate protocols have been followed, with immediate isolation and quarantine in coordination with the Department of Health. Unlike some schools, we have conducted thousands of initial tests, have begun surveillance testing and offer on-site symptomatic and other testing as advised by clinicians. Through our testing program with Northwell Health, we have implemented aggressive public health protocols and have worked closely with the Nassau County Department of Health to verify any reports of off-campus positive test results, and continue to follow all public health and state guidelines." the university said.

A spokesman for Gov. Cuomo released the following statement:

"Governor Cuomo has been clear that COVID can easily spread on college campuses and must be monitored closely -- with 74 confirmed cases among the student body, there is obviously cause for concern at Hofstra and the Department of Health will continue to treat this like what it is: an outbreak that must be watched."

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