NEW ORLEANS (AP) - New Orleans’s youngest public school students will begin returning to classrooms as early as Sept. 14, the city’s school superintendent said Friday as he announced a phased re-opening plan tied to the control of COVID-19.
Henderson Lewis said the plan is for students from prekindergarten through 4th grade to begin returning to schools in phases beginning Sept. 14. Older students will begin returning in October. “We know that our youngest students have the most to gain from in person learning,” Lewis said.
All of the plans are contingent on current trends indicating the spread of the virus has been successfully limited in the city, Lewis and Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the city’s health officer, said.
The benchmarks include a continued new-case rate of less than 50 per day in the city.
Statewide, the health department reported more than 600 new confirmed cases Friday, bringing the total to at least 146,243, with nearly 128,000 presumed recovered. Thirty newly reported deaths brought the virus-related death toll to at least 4,741.
Hospitalizations ticked up a bit to 900. But hospitalizations, a key figure used by officials in gauging success in containing the virus, have been on an overall downward trend for more than a month. They dipped below 900 on Thursday for the first time since July 4.
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