Bigs pan school threshold: source

Before an increase in COVID cases prompted Mayor de Blasio to shut down public schools, his top health advisors had “for a long time” expressed concerns about using the statistical threshold that ultimately triggered their closure, a source with knowledge of the situation revealed Wednesday.

Under the city’s self-imposed coronavirus guidelines, schools close when the daily percentage of people testing positive for COVID reaches 3% over an average of 7 days.

The city hit that threshold Wednesday.

But the well-placed source said that behind the scenes, the mayor’s top health advisors have been advising him for weeks that the threshold the city is using is flawed and could unnecessarily sideline students.

“Senior city health officials have expressed to the mayor and his administration their disagreement and concern with using the 3% threshold to close schools in the city, given that schools themselves are not at 3% and that transmission in schools is not as big a concern as it is in other settings like bars and restaurants,” the source said.

The dispute among top advisors raises the question of why the mayor continues to use that threshold, with some observers speculating that the teachers union has lobbied de Blasio to maintain it.

The United Federation of Teachers and a de Blasio spokesman did not immediately return calls

De Blasio did not deny that there have been disagreements within his administration over the use of the threshold, but he and his health advisors provided only a vague picture of what has transpired behind the scenes.

He vowed to formulate a “higher standard” to resume in-person learning, but said that standard was still being discussed with the state government.