Slow-Walking Normalcy
‘Good news,” cheered Gov. Cuomo on Friday — COVID “numbers are down.” He’s right. So why isn’t New York’s reopening keeping pace? On Monday, the Department of Education announced that half the city’s high schools will resume full-time, in-person classes this month, but only for the 55,000 kids who signed up for blended instruction. That’s just a fifth of the city’s 288,000 high schoolers, but the DOE won’t give the other families a chance to change their minds.
So most teens will be stuck learning almost nothing in front of screens at home. (Sunday, The Post reported on a mom who found her son’s online high-school economics class consisted of sketchy rap videos.)
Such slowness is inexcusable, when data has shown that schools, even grades 9-12, were never major sources of COVID-19 spread.
Cuomo is also opening indoor dining to 75 percent capacity this month, but only outside the city. Huh? For too long, Gotham eateries had to close indoor seating completely or limit customers to just 25 percent, even as other places could serve up to 50 percent. Many had to close forever. Now surviving city eateries can serve up to 35 percent — still far too low to make ends meet.
Cuomo also raised the curtain on live plays, concerts and other entertainment events — but limited them to one-third capacity, and no more than 100 people at indoor performances. Again, many Broadway shows can’t operate on such small audience sizes.
Team Biden is on the same slow road, issuing a Centers for Disease Control advisory Monday packed with restrictions even on people who’ve been vaccinated.
It’s crazy: Infection rates have been rapidly dropping. Cuomo boasted Friday of a 2.98 percent positivity rate, and 4,789 hospitalizations, the fewest in months. In the city, the seven-day average positive rate was just 4 percent Sunday, far below its peak.
Vaccination rates are jumping, and warmer weather also will help slow the spread.
Why keep punishing the public? It’s almost as if our leaders love this crisis so much, they don’t want it to end.