In his first major test as mayor of New York City, Eric Adams is resisting pressure from municipal unions and elected officials to do more to stop the spread of the coronavirus as cases and hospitalizations rise.
Mr Adams insists schools should remain open, and he is urging employers to allow employees to return to their offices, despite calls from some union leaders to temporarily return to virtual learning and remote working.
With coronavirus cases soaring in recent days, a small but growing list of public school districts across the country — including Newark, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Cleveland — have temporarily switched to distance learning. On Monday night, the Philadelphia school district announced that 81 of the 216 schools would be going remote.
In an interview on DailyExpertNews on Tuesday morning, Mr. Adams made his decision to reopen schools even though about a third of parents didn’t send their kids back to class Monday for the start of the semester. He continued to claim that students were safer in school.
“I’m not going to let the hysteria hinder my children’s future from getting a good education,” mr. Adams said on DailyExpertNews.
On Tuesday, citing the lack of evidence that Omicron affects children more seriously, President Biden called for schools in the United States to be kept open. Local officials should use federal funds from the stimulus package approved last year to improve ventilation systems in schools and support classrooms large enough for social distancing, he said.
“We have no reason at this time to think that Omicron is any worse for children than previous variants,” said Mr Biden. “We know that our children can be safe at school.”
Mr. Adams, a Democrat who was sworn in on Saturday just after the New Year’s Eve ball fell in Times Square, also urged companies not to let employees work remotely, echoing a message he delivered on Bloomberg TV Monday: can’t run New York City from home.”
Mr Adams insisted on Tuesday that he was not at war with the teachers’ union and its chairman, Michael Mulgrew, who had called for a temporary return to distance learning.
“There is no battle between Michael Mulgrew and Eric Adams,” said Mr. Adams, adding that they speak three times a day and work together to keep the classrooms safe.
Mr Adams has repeatedly argued that city schools should remain open and that especially poor children suffer from distance learning. He recently announced, along with his predecessor and the governor, a plan to distribute millions of rapid home tests to schools and increase the number of random surveillance tests among students.
New York City reported nearly 30,000 new virus cases on Monday and the number of people hospitalized has risen surpassed 5,000, according to state data. That level exceeds last winter’s peak, but is still below the number of hospital admissions during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, when 12,000 people were hospitalized on the worst days.
There are long lines outside test centers, as has been the case for weeks, and many private companies have said their employees must continue to work from home.
Some officials have called for more aggressive measures to stop the spread of the virus, including Mark D. Levine, Manhattan’s new president who has become a leading voice in bolstering the views of health experts.
Mr. Levine released a 16-point plan on Monday that: called on the city to encourage New Yorkers to avoid large gatherings, to temporarily allow city employees to work from home and to mandate masks in all indoor settings for vaccinated and unvaccinated New Yorkers.
“We must act now to slow this wave, protect our hospitals and support the sick,” he said.
His plan has received support from leaders, including Randi Weingarten, the head of the country’s most powerful teachers’ union, and Ron T. Kim, a state representative from Queens.
In September, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered city employees who had worked from home to return to offices. The city has more than 300,000 workers, and about 80,000 of those who work in offices and were allowed to work remotely have had to return.
As coronavirus cases began to mount in December, the largest union representing city workers called on Mr de Blasio to implement a remote policy for workers who can do their work from home. On Tuesday, a union spokeswoman, District Council 37, said it would continue to push Mr Adams for a distance policy.
“Our non-essential members have proven they can do their jobs from home,” said spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein. “There’s no reason to keep them in the office at risk to their health.”
Mr Adams, who has close ties to the leaders of District Council 37, has said he would discuss the policy with unions.