NYC closes most kids’ daycares

City daycares that have managed to stay open amid the coronavirus crisis must now shut their doors, the city Health Department ordered Friday.

The order allows only the Regional Enrichment Centers operated by the city Education Department for childcare of front line workers to remain open after Monday.

“New York City child care centers and school-based child care programs are required to close before April 6, 2020, under Order of the New York City Board of Health. This measure is being taken to slow the spread of coronavirus disease 2019,” Assistant Commissioner Simone Hawkins wrote in a letter to families.

City officials had already recommended that childcare programs close down to stem the spread of the disease, but did not mandate it.

Many programs shuttered on their own, unable to make ends meet.

Some remained open, though, scraping by to provide childcare for families who need to work and want their kids in a trusted and familiar environment.

One Bronx daycare operator who asked to remain anonymous told the Daily News that she remained open because the pleas from healthcare workers whose kids attended the program “broke my heart.”

Some parents worried that sending kids to the city-run centers would increase their risk of exposure because they’d be surrounded by more people, the operator said.

Some officials and lawmakers had called for more government support to help keep childcare centers running and solvent during the crisis.

The city Education Department is operating 66 childcare centers across the city for children of health care and transit workers and first responders, along with grocery and pharmacy workers.