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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that there is a closure threshold for colleges and universities that will force a college to cancel in-person classes and transition to remote classes over at least a two-week period.
According to the state, if a campus has an outbreak of more than 100 positive COVID-19 cases or an outbreak that equals more than 5 percent of the population, it will have to turn to remote learning before students can return to the classroom.
After two weeks, Cuomo said they will “reassess the situation.”
During a potential remote learning situation, students will be permitted to remain on campus, though COVID-19 restrictions will remain in place.
“We have colleges that are reopening,” Cuomo said. “We're seeing around the country situations where colleges reopen and then have an outbreak of cases.”
Cuomo said that the 5 percent threshold is the population that are on-site, including students and faculty.
“We should anticipate clusters,” he added. “When you have large congregations of people, anticipate a cluster. We know that. Also, that's what we're seeing.
“You see it around the country. Be prepared for it, get ahead of it. Be prepared for it, get ahead of it,” Cuomo continued. “It's what I say to my team five times a day. So, we expect it. We want to be prepared for it. And that's a threshold that we're going to put in place.”
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